oy. 


^mUeaUsic^fj^ 


« 


j^^"'  ^^^/^ 


PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


** 


% 


Presented    by " '  -^ X~^(0, s  \  0\ (S r\ V~  VcA^\ 


or\ 


BV  199  .R5  B85  1873 
Budington,  William  Ives, 

1815-1879. 
Responsive  worship 


j%;^;3,;  •^•■■^'■^•■ft^: ■•;.■'*■'. 


!•'' 


)s#.t4 


RESPOWSIYE  WORSHIP: 


A  DISCOURSE,  WITH  NOTES, 


BY 

AV'M.   IVES   BUDINGTON,  D.D., 


AND  LETTERS  FROM 


Rev.  Drs.  G.  B.  BACON,  L.  BACON,  N.  J.  BURTON,  H.  BUSH- 

NELL.  T.  J.  CONANT,  O.  E.  DAGGETT,  E.  P.  GOOD'^TN, 

R.  S.  STORRS,  Jr.,  and  T.  D.  WOOLSEY. 


Affirmabant  autem,  banc  fuisse  summam  vel  culpae  sues  vel  erroris, 
quod  essent  soliti  state  die  ante  lucem  convenire,  carmenque  Cbristo, 
quasi  Deo,  dicere  secum  invicem.— ^^.  Plinii.  X  97. 


S.    BARNES    &L    COMPANY, 

NEW   YORK   AND   CHICAGO. 
1873. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  A.D.,  1873,  by 

A.   S.    BARNES    &    CO., 
In  the  Office  of  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


PREFACE 


This  little  book  is  given  to  the  public  in 
the  hope  that  it  may  contribute  to  the  im- 
provement of  public  worship  in  some  of  its 
methods.  The  sermon  was  prepared  in  answer 
to  a  request  made  in  the  middle  of  the  week, 
and  preached  extemporaneously  in  part,  the 
following  Sabbath,  as  a  contribution  towards  the 
discussion  of  the  question  then  before  the  church. 
The  writer  has  endeavored  to  make  it  more 
worthy  of  publication,  by  careful  re^dsion,  as  well 
as  by  the  addition  of  notes,  and  especially  by  the 
letters  appended,  which  were  drawn  forth  from  the 
several  writers  by  the  report  of  the  sermon,  as 
originally  pubhshed  in  the  Neio  Yorh  Daily 
Witness.  The  concurrence  of  so  many  culti- 
vated minds,  acting  independently,  and  in  so  dis- 
tinct spheres,  is  certainly  a  significant  fact,  and 
warrants  the  most  thoughtful  consideration  of 
this  subject  on  the  part  of  our  ministers  and 
churches.  The  hope  is  cherished,  that  as  the  result 
of  such  mature  consideration,  an  impulse  will  be 


11  FKEFACE. 

given  to  the  worship  of  the  Sanctuary,  until  it 
shall  become  at  once  spiritual  and  attractive, 
and  by  meeting  the  deeper  and  truer  wants  of 
the  people,  displace  the  tendency  to  merely  orna- 
mental and  artistic  performances.  While  speak- 
ing especially  and  almost  exclusively  of  respon- 
sive worship  in  the  use  of  the  Psalter,  the 
writer  has  no  desire  to  press  this  method  un- 
duly ;  it  is  but  one  means  among  many  of 
enlisting  the  interest  and  participation  of  the 
congregation ;  and  his  principal  object  will  be 
attained,  if  he  helps  in  any  way  the  spirit  and 
practice  of  congregational  worship. 

The  Clinton  Avenue  Church  have  adopted  the 
Order  of  Worship,  which  has  been  observed  for 
seyeral  years  in  the  Church  of  the  Pilgi'ims. 
It  is  as  follows: 

MORNING   SERVICE. 

I.  After  a  suitable  prelude  on  the  organ,  tlie  first  meas- 
ures of  tlie  tune  Old  Hundred  are  played,  and  the  congrega- 
tion rise,  without  notice  from  the  Minister,  and  sing  the 
DOXOLOGY : 

Praise  God,  from  wliom  all  blessings  flow  : 
Praise  Him,  all  creatures  here  below : 
Praise  Him  above,  ye  Heudenly  Host : 
Praise  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ohost. 


PREFACE.  Ill 

II.  The  Prayer  op  Invocation  is  offered  by  the  Minis- 
ter, [tlie  congFv'^gation  bowing  down.] 

III.  The  Opening-  Hymn  is  read  by  the  Minister,  and 
sung  by  the  choir  and  the  congregation,  [all  standing.] 

IV.  A  portion  of  The  Holy  Scripture  is  read  by  the 

Minister,  [the  congregation  sitting.] 

[When  a  Chant  is  sung  congregationally,  two  Lessons  may  be  read 
from  Holy  Scripture,  one  from  the  Old  Testament,  and  the  other  from 
the  New.  The  Gloria  Patri  is  sung  at  the  end  of  each  Chant.  (The 
congregation  stand  during  the  chanting.) 

V.  The  Prayer  of  General  Supplication  is  offered 
by  the  Minister,  [the  congregation  boAving  down,]  a:id  at 
the  close  of  it  is  repeated,  by  both  Minister  and  people,  The 
Lord's  Prayer. 

[After  the  prayer  the  choir  may  chant  a  brief  Scriptural  selection 
without  notice  from  the  pulpit.] 

VI.  A  Lesson  from  The  Psalter  is  announced  by  the 
Minister,  and  is  read  by  him  and  the  congregation  respon- 
sively,  [all  standing] ;  and  at  the  close  thereof  is  sung  by 
the  choir  and  the  congregation  the  ancient  Doxology  : 

Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to  ths 
Holy  Ghost ;  as  it  teas  in  the  beginning,  is  now,  and 
ever  shall  be,  world  without  end.    Amen. 

VII.  After  these  acts  of  Prayer  and  Praise  [the  congrega- 
tion having  resumed  their  seats,]  any  Notices  may  be 
given  by  the  Minister,  of  religious  meetings  for  the  week 
to  come,  or  of  other  matters  suitable  to  be  brought  on  the 
Lord's  Day  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Church  ;  and  then 

VIII.  A  Hymn,  or  Chant,  announced,  but  not  read  by 
the  Minister,  is  sung  by  the  choir,  [the  congregation  still 
sitting.  ] 


IV  PREFACE. 

IX.  This  is  followed  by  The  Sermon. 

X.  After  the  Sermon  the  Closing  Hymn  is  read  or 
announced  by  the  Minister,  and  is  sung  by  the  choir  and 
the  congregation,  [all  standing.] 

XI.  The  Prayer  for  a  Blessing  on  the  Word  is 
offered  by  the  Minister;  and  at  the  end  of  it  [while  the 
congregation  are  still  bowed  down,]  he  pronounces  The 
Benediction  : 

The  grace  of  our  Jjord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  love  of 
God,  and  the  communion  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  he  with 
you  all.    Amen. 

Note. — When  Children  are  to  be  baptized,  they  must  be 
presented  for  that  ordinance  at  the  Morning  Service,  on  the 
proper  Sundays,  immediately  after  The  Prayer  of  In- 
vocation. 

When  Collections  are  to  be  taken  for  charitable  objects, 
they  may  follow  either  the  Notices,  or  the  Sermon,  at  the 
discretion  of  the  Minister. 

EVENING   SERVICE. 

I.  After  a  suitable  prelude  on  the  organ,  a  brief  Chant 
or  Anthem  is  sung  by  the  choir,  [the  congregation  sitting.] 

II.  The  Opening  Hymn  is  read  by  the  Minister,  and 
sung  by  the  choir  and  the  congregation,  [all  standing.] 

III.  A  portion  of  The  Holy  Scripture  is  read  by  the 
Minister,  [the  congregation  sitting.] 

IV.  The  Prayer  of  General  Supplication  is  offered 
by  the  Minister,  [the  congregation  bowing  down.] 


PREFACE.  V 

V.  A  Lesson  from  The  Psalter  is  announced  by  the 
Minister,  and  is  read  by  liim  and  the  congregation  respon- 
sively,  [all  standinpr]  j  and  at.  the  close  thereof  is  sung  by 
the  choir  and  the  congregation  the  ancient  Doxology  : 

Olory  he  to  the  Father,  a7id  to  the  Son,  and  to  the 
Holy  Ghost;  as  it  teas  in  the  beginning,  is  now,  and 
ever  shall  he,  world  idthout  end.    Amen. 

VI.  After  these  acts  of  Prayer  and  Praise  [the  congrega- 
tion having  resumed  their  seats,]  any  Notices  may  be 
given  by  the  Minister,  of  religious  meetings  for  the  week 
to  come,  or  of  other  matters  suitable  to  be  brought  (m  the 
Lord's  Day  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Church  ;  and  then 

VII.  A  Hymn,  or  Chant,  announced,  but  not  read  by 
the  Minister,  is  sung  by  the  choir,  [the  congregation  still 
sitting.] 

VIII.  This  is  followed  by  The  Sermon. 

IX.  After  the  Sermon  the  Closing  Hymn  is  read  or 
announced  by  the  Minister,  and  is  sung  by  the  choir  and 
the  congregation,  [all  standing.]  At  the  end  of  this  hymn 
a  Doxology,  in  the  same  metre,  is  usually  added  ^Nithout 
being  announced. 

X.  The  Prayer  for  a  Blessing  on  the  Word  is 
oflFered  by  the  Minister ;  and  at  the  end  of  it  [while  the 
congregation  are  still  bowed  down,]  he  pronounces  The 
Benediction  : 

Tlie  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  love  of 
God,  and  the  communion  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  he  with 
you  all.    Amen. 


vi  PREFACE. 

This  form  of  worship,  as  will  be  seen,  is  very 
simple,  and  diiSers  but  shghtly  from  that  in  com- 
mon use ;  but  the  difference,  slight  as  it  is,  is  a 
pervasiye    leaven   to   quicken   and  transform   the 
whole  service.     It  is  warmer,  more  social  and  devo- 
tional.   Some  might  desire  the  recitation  in  unison 
of  the  Apostles'  Greed  ;    and,  as  Dr.  Woolsey  sug- 
gests in  his  letter,  it  would  be  grateful  to  very 
many,  as  to  him,  to  have  "  some  of  the  best,  small 
chants  regularly  introduced,  such  as  "  The  Lord 
is  in  his  Holy  Temple,  let  all  the  earth  keep  silence 
iefore  him,"  and   "  /  was  glad  when  they  said  unto 
me,  Let  us  go  into  the  house  of  the  Lord."     35th 
Chant  in  Songs  for  the  Sanctuary.     When  such 
men  as  the  venerable  Ex-President  of  Yale  Col- 
lege  testify,   that    they  never  hear  these  simple 
chants,  "without   the  profoundest  feelings  being 
excited,  and  would  go  no  small  distance  to  have 
•them   renewed,"  it  is   surely    incumbent  on   our 
churches  to  provide  for  such  wants,  and  consider 
whether  they  may  not  both  deepen  and  extend  the 
power  of  Christian  worship  by  such  provisions. 

If  this  discourse  shall,  in  any  measure,  contri- 
bute to  this  good  end,  the  author  will  be  abund- 
antly repaid  for  the  publication. 

Clinton  Ave.  Congkegational  Church, 
Brooklyn,  N.   T.,  AprU^d,  1873. 


RESPONSIVE    WORSHIP 


And  they  worshipped  him^  and  returned  to  Jerusalem  with 
great  joy;  and  were  continually  in  the  Temple^  praising  and 
blessing  God,     Amen.      St.  Luke  24:  52,  53. 


rr^HE  earthly  life  of  our  Lord  ends  with  his 
-■-  ascension.  That  closing  scene  was  marked 
by  an  act  of  benediction  on  his  part,  and  of 
worship  on  the  part  of  the  disciples.  "  He  lifted 
up  his  hands  and  blessed  them,  and  while  he 
blessed  them,  he  was  parted  from  them,  and 
carried  up  into  heaven.  And  they  worshipped 
him.''  So  the  curtain  drops  upon  the  Gospel 
history  ;  and  when  the  curtain  rises  again,  in 
the  beginning  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  it 
reveals  the  infant  church  still  in  the  attitude  of 
worship.  First  of  all  we  find  them  in  ^Hhe 
upper  room "  of  a  private  house,  "  with  one 
accord  in  prayer  and  supplication,"  and  also 
"  continualiy/'  that  is,  at  the  appointed  hours, 


8  KESPONSIVE   WORSHIP. 

"  in  the  Temple  praising  and  blessing  God." 
The  history  of  Christ  began  in  worship,  the 
heavenly  host  praising  God  over  the  plains  of 
Bethlehenij  and  ended  in  worship,  as  the  dis- 
ciples saw  him  ascend  into  the  heavens.  So  the 
history  of  the  Christian  Church  began,  as  it  will 
end,  in  worship.  The  individual  Christian  also 
is  born  in  an  act  of  worship,  and  when  he  dies 
and  becomes  immortal,  worship  becomes  his 
eternal  life.  No  subject,  therefore,  so  concerns 
the  Church  and  the  Christian  as  this  ;  and  no 
question  takes  precedence  of  this,  How  can 
Christian  worship  be  most  fitly  expressed,  and 
its  spirit  most  deeply  felt  ?  How  was  it,  in 
point  of  fict,  rendered  in  those  wonderful  days 
of  praise  and  prayer,  which  followed  the  ascent 
of  our  Lord,  and  which  issued  in  the  inaugura- 
tion of  the  Church  by  the  descent  of  the  Spirit 
at  Pentecost  ? 

The  first  thing  the  disciples  did,  after  the 
ascension,  was  to  pay  our  Lord  the  homage  of 
divine  adoration.  We  are  sure  it  could  have 
been  nothing  less  than  this.  They  had  seen  the 
heavens  open,  and  the  form  of  Jesus  rising  from 
the  midst  of  them,  till  a  cloud  received  him  out 


RESPONSIVE   WORSHIP.  9 

of  their  sight  ;  and  at  such  a  time,  after  what 
they  had  witnessed  of  his  death  and  resurrection, 
it  must  have  heen  divine  worship  they  rendered. 
Descending  the  Mount,  and  passing  the  Garden 
of  Gethsemane,  they  are  not  chilled  by  recollec- 
tions of  the  i^lace  ;  all  sorrow  is  swallowed  up, 
now,  in  the  glory  of  the  Resurrection,  completed 
and  sealed  by  the  Ascension  ;  and  they  re-enter 
the  holy  city  with  a  joy  which  finds  expression 
in  daily  attendance  and  with  one  accord  upon 
the  Temple,  "  praising  and  blessing  God." 

If  w^e  ask  the  question.  How  did  these  first 
praises  of  the  jubilant  and  expectant  Church  find 
expression?  we  maybe  quite  sure  it  was,along  with 
prayer,  by  the  use  of  the  Psalms.  Those  Psalms 
had  come  down  to  them  from  the  time  of  David, 
and  had  been  the  organ  of  praise  to  the  ancient 
Church,  each  generation  finding  more  precious 
the  hallowed  forms  wdiich  had  borne  aloft  to  God 
the  thanksgivings  and  supplications  of  their 
kings  and  prophets.  In  these  words  David  had 
worshipped  God,  and  his  people  with  him  ;  so 
Hezekiah,  and  all  the  congregation  with  him, 
"  with  the  words  of  David  and  of  Asaph  the 
Seer;''    so  Ezra   and   Nehemiah.      When    the 


10  RESPONSIVE    WORSHIP. 

foundations  of  tlie  Second  Temple  were  laid, 
"  all  the  people  shouted  with  a  great  shout, 
Avhen  they  praised  the  Lord/' 

Not  only  were  the  Psalms  used,  but  they  were 
used  responsively.  In  his  description  of  the 
dedication  of  the  wall  of  Jerusalem,  Nehemiah 
says  that  he  "  brought  up  the  princes  of  Judah 
upon  the  Avail,  and  appointed  two  great  com- 
panies of  them  that  gave  thanks,  whereof  one 
Avent  on  the  right  hand,  and  the  other  company 
Avent  over  against  them  ;  so  stood  the  tA\^o  com- 
panies of  them  that  gave  thanks  in  the  house  of 
the  Lord,  and  I  and  the  half  of  the  rulers  with- 
me."  Neh.  12  :  31.  Many  of  the  Psalms  were 
CAddcntly  constructed  foi:  this  antiphonal  or  re- 
sponsive use  ;  and  it  is  matter  of  Scriptural 
testimony  that  they  Avere  so  used.  In  the  psalm 
of  thanksgiving,  at  the  bringing  of  the  Ark  of 
the  CoA^enant  of  God,  it  is  written,  "  Let  all  the 
people  say.  Amen.  Praise  ye  the  Lord;"  and 
the  historical  fact  is  also  on  record,  that  "  all 
the  people  said  Amen,  and  j^raised  the  Lord." 
Psalm  106:  48.  Cf  1  Chron.  IG  :  36.  The  136th 
Psalm  is  especially  remarkable  in  this  respect, 
eA^ery  strain  of  the  Psalmist  being  responded  to 


RESPONSIVE  woiisiiir.  11 

by  the  answer,  'Tor  his  mercy  endure th  for 
ever."  These  responses  appear  to  have  been 
sung  either  by  a  choir,  or  the  people,  or  both 
together.  Or  rather,  it  was  not  so  much  a  sing- 
ing, as  an/'  Oriental  style  of  d-clamatkn,  with 
a  lively  modulation  of  the  voice,"  a  method,  of 
recitation  more  nearly  allied  to  the  reading  than 
to  the  singing  of  our  times.'*'"  The  antiquity^of 
this  mode  of  worship  is  one  of  the  most  interest- 
ing flicts  in  the  Bible  ;  it  dates  back  to  the  time 
of  Moses,  as  his  song  on  the  triumphant  passage 
of  the  Red  Sea  witnesses,  when  to  the  chorus 
of  men's  voices,  led  by  Moses,  Miriam  and  all 
the  women  answered,  ''  Sing  ye  to  the  Lord,  for 
he  hath  triumphed  gloriously  ;  the  horse  and 
his  rider  hath  he  thrown  into  the  sea."  Ex. 
15  :  21. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Jesus  and  his 
apostles  worshipped  God  in  the  use  of  the 
Psalter.  The  synagogue  worshipf  was  modelled 
upon  that  of  the  Temple,  and  Christian  worship, 
again,  upon  them  both.  When  a  member  of 
the   cono-resfation   in   Nazareth,   and   until   his 

*  Lange's  Ps-ilras.  p.  23.  f  Note  I.,  p.  43. 


12  RESPONSIVE    WOIISHIP. 

showing  unto  Israel,  our  Lord,  in  all  probability, 
joined  in  the  recitation  of  the  Psalms  ;  and 
when  he  observed  the  Passover,  and  instituted 
the  Sacrament  of  the  Supper,  he  sang  a  hymn, 
or  rather  the  hymn — for  we  know  that  it  was 
composed  of  the  115th  and  118th  Psalms.  So 
Paul  and  Silas  "  sang  praises  to  God  at  mid- 
night ;"  or  praying  J  they  sang  praises.  The 
distinction  we  make  they  did  not,  between  pray- 
ing and  singing,  differing,  as  these  do,  in  form 
only,  not  in  essence.  They  mingled  praises  and 
prayers,  gliding  from  one  into  the  other  un- 
consciously, in  the  use  of  the  Psalms,  and  no 
one  can  use  them  and  do  otherwise.  The 
Psalter  w^as  the  earliest  Christian  hymn-book, 
rlthough  from  the  very  beginning  it  is  probable 
that  Christian  hymns  were  composed — we  may 
even  have  verses  from  them  in  the  letters  of  St. 
Paul — ^but  they  were  formed  after  the  model  of 
the  Psalms  of  David,  and  not  only  recited,  but 
recited  or  sung  responsively,  as  the  Psalms  were. 
Of  this  last  fact  we  have  singularly  strong 
evidence.  The  New  Testament  has  traces  of  it. 
The  Apostle  Paul  says  to  the  Ephesians  (5  :  19), 
^'  speak  to  yourselves  in  psalms  and  hymns,"  or 


RESPONSIVE    WORSHIP.  13 

to  oni  another^  as  modern  scholars  render  it,  and 
as  our  translators  have  done  in  the  parallel  pass- 
age to  the  Colossians  (3  :  16),  where  he  exhorts 
them  to  "  teach  and  admonish  one  another  in 
psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual  songs."  There 
seems  to  be  a  reference  here  to  responsive  wor- 
ship ;  and  this  reference  is  rendered  still  more 
probable  by  what  we  know,  from  other  sources, 
of  the  earliest  Christian  worship.  About  a.d. 
110,  Pliny''-"  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Emperor 
Trajan,  in  which  he  gives  us  the  earliest  and 
most  important  information  to  be  derived  from 
any  Roman  writer  of  repute,  respecting  the 
Christian  assemblies  of  the  first  century.  To 
certify  himself  what  they  did  when  they  came 
together,  on  a  stated  day,  before  light,  he  put 
some  of  them  to  torture,  and  reported  what  he 
learned  to  his  imperial  master  at  Rome.  Among 
other  things  was  this  in  particular,  that  they 
were  accustomed  to  utter,  i.e.,  to  say  or  to  sing, 
'^  respondvelu  among  themselves,  a  song  of  praise 
to  Christ  as  God.^f  This  testimony,  taken  in 
connection  with  the  usage  of  the  Jewish  Church, 

*  Note  II.,  p.  45. 

f  Dorner.    Person  of  Christ.     Vol.  I.,  165. 


14  RESPONSIVE    WOIISIIIP, 

makes  it  certain  tliat  the  use  of  the  Psalms,  in 
the  way  of  responsive  recitation  or  chanting,  is 
the  most  ancient  form  of  worshijD  known  in  the 
Chm-ch  of  Christ.  It  certainly  belonged  to  the 
earliest  and  pm-est  ages  of  the  Church  ;  we  con- 
fidently trace  it  back  to  the  martyrs  and  con- 
fessors of  the  time,  when  worship  was  most 
dangerous,  and  we  may  well  believe  most  spiri- 
tual. So  they  praised  God  in  the  subterranean 
catacombs  of  Kome,  and  lifted  up  their  voices 
where  no  human  ear  could  hear  them,  beside 
their  martyred  brethren  asleep  in  Jesus.  All 
our  sources  of  information  unite  in  testifying  to 
the  extreme  simplicity  of  the  first  Christian 
worship.  Justin  Martyr,'-*'  writing  not  long  after 
Pliny  in  the  second  century,  says,  "  On  the  day 
called  Sunday,  all  who  live  in  cities,  or  in  the 
country,  gather  together  to  one  place,  and  the 
memoirs  of  the  apostles  or  the  writings  of  the 
prophets  are  read,  as  long  as  time  permits ;  then, 
when  the  reader  has  ceased,  the  president  ver- 
bally instructs  and  exhorts  to  the  imitation  of 
these  good  things.     Then  we  all  rise  together 

*  Justin  Apol.,  cliap.  67, 


RESPONSIVE   WORSHIP.  15 

and  pray,  and  wlien  our  prayer  is  ended,  bread 
and  wine  arid  water  are  brouglit,  and  the  presi- 
dent, in  like  manner,  offers  prayers  and  thanks- 
givings, according  to  his  ability,  and  the  people 
assent,  saying  Amen  ;  and  there  is  a  distribu- 
tion to  each,  and  a  participation  of  that  over 
which  thanks  have  been  given,  and  to  those  who 
are  absent  a  portion  is  sent  by  the  deacons/' 

Basil,*  writing  in  the  fourth  century,  and 
describing  the  order  of  worship  which  they  had 
inherited  from  ages  of  severe  persecution,  says, 
^'  The  customs  which  now  prevail  among  us,  are 
consonant  and  agreeable  to  all  the  churches  of 
God.  For  with  us  the  people,  rising  early, 
whilst  it  is  night,  come  to  the  house  of  prayer, 
and  there,  with  much  labor  and  affliction,  and 
contrition  and  tears,  make  confession  of  their 
sins  to  God.  When  this  is  done,  they  rise  from 
prayers,  and  dispose  themselves  to  psalmody; 
sometimes  dividing  themselves  into  two  parts, 
they  answer  one  another  in  singing,  or  sing  al- 
ternately ;  after  this  again  they  permit  one  alone 
to  begin  the  psalm,  and  the  rest  join  in  the  close 

*  Bingham's  Antiquities,  Book  XIII.,  10, 13. 


16  RESPONSIVE   WORSHIP. 

of  every  verse.  And  thus  with  this  variety  of 
psalmody  they  carry  on  the  night,  praying  be- 
twixt whiles,  or  intermingling  prayers  with  their 
psalms.  At  last  when  the  day  begins  to  break 
forth,  they  all  in  common,  as  with  one  mouth 
and  one  heart,  offer  up  to  God  the  psalm  of 
confession — the  Fifty-first  Psalm — every  one 
making  the  words  of  this  psalm  to  be  the  ex- 
pression of  his  own  repentance." 

Such  was  Christian  worship,  at  a  time  when 
to  worship  Christ  at  all  was  a  felony.  It  was 
distinctively  congregational,  common,  responsive, 
at  a  time  when,  to  avoid  persecution  and  death, 
it  was  conducted  by  night,  and  under  ground  ; 
but  when  it  was  brought  above  ground,  little 
by  little,  the  rights  of  the  people  were  taken 
away  from  them,  the  ancient  practice  of  re- 
sponding fell  into  disuse,  and  was  supplanted  by 
more  artistic  forms,  till  the  whole  service  was 
conducted  by  the  priest — for,  by  this  time,  the 
minister  had  become  a  priest — and  by  the  choir, 
to  which  were  assigned  the  duties  and  privileges 
of  the  congregation.  In  Roman  Catholic  con- 
gregations the  people  are,  for  the  most  part, 
silent,   alike  in  prayer  and   praise.      But   the 


RESPONSIVE   WORSHIP.  17 

people  in  a  multitude  of  Protestant  churches  are 
equally  silent ;  the  minister  and  choir  do  all  the 
praying  and  all  the  praising,  and  the  congrega- 
tion retain  not  even  a  reminiscence  of  their  lost 
rights.  It  is  a  loss  that  involves  the  very  essence 
of  Christianity,  and  has  to  do  vitally  with  the 
divine  charter  of  the  Church.  "  Ye,"  says  the 
Apostle  Peter,  "  are  a  holy  priesthood  to  offer 
up  spiritual  sacrifices,''  acceptable  to  God  by 
Jesus  Chris t.'^  And  to  whom  did  he  say  this  ? 
To  any  class  in  the  Christian  Church  ?  Evi- 
dently not ;  but  to  the  people,  "  strangers  scat- 
tered throughout  Asia  Minor,  elect  according  to 
the  foreknowledge  of  God  the  Father,  through 
sanctification  of  the  Spirit,  unto  obedience  and 
sprinkling  of  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ."  It  is 
a  distinctive  feature  of  the  Christian  religion  and 
church,  that  all  Christian  believers  are  "  a  chosen 
generation,  a  royal  priesthood,  a  holy  nation,  a 
peculiar  people,  that  they  should  show  forth  the 
praises  of  him  who  hath  called  them  out  of 
darkness  into  his  marvellous  light."  To  obscure 
this  truth  is  to  darken  the  Gospel ;  to  lose  it  out 

*  Note  III.,  p.  47. 


18  RESPONSIVE   WORSHIP. 

of  mind  and  out  of  practice,  is  to  lose  the  sweet- 
est privilege  of  the  children  of  God.  This  chiefly 
distinguishes  Christianity  from  Judaism  ;  this 
is  the  chief  defence  the  Church  has  against  the 
assumptions  and  domination  of  that  priesthood, 
who,  as  "  lords  over  God's  heritage,"  were  the 
first  to  corrupt,  and  have  longest  enslaved  the. 
churches  of  Christ.  Justin  Martyr,*  in  his 
dialogue  with  Trypho  the  Jew,  writing  a  hun- 
dred years  after  St.  Peter,  says,  "  We  are  the 
true  high-priestly  race  of  ^God,  as  even  God 
himself  bears  witness,  saying  that  in  every  place 
among  the  Gentiles  sacrifices  are  presented  to 
Him  well-pleasing  and  pure.  Now  God  receives 
sacrifices  from  no  one,  except  through  his 
priests."  Common  w^orship  grows  out  of,  and  is 
vitally  connected  with,  the  doctrine  of  the  priest- 
hood of  all  Christians  ;  and  it  is  historically 
true,  that  purity  of  doctrine  in  this  regard,  and 
popular  forms  of  worship,  have  flourished  or 
decayed  together. 

Of  late  years   increased   attention  has   been 
given  to  the  subject  of  worship,  and  the  best 

*  Chap.  XVI.,  Fairbairn's  Revelation  of  Law,  p.  302. 


RESPONSIVE    WORSHIP.  19 

means  of  popularizing  it.  Special  thought  and 
labor  has  been  bestowed  upon  congregational 
singing,  and  with  happy  results,  both  in  this 
country  and  Great  Britain.  The  nonconformist 
churches  of  England/--'"  have  introduced  the 
chanting  of  the  Psalms  just  as  we  liave  them  in 
our  Bible,  and  it  has  added  wonderfully  to  the 
interest  and  power  of  public  worship.  In  the 
United  States  a  tendency  exists  to  introduce  the 
reading  of  the  Psalter  by  minister  and-  people 
responsively ;  and  this  has  already  been  done  by 
a  number  of  our  Congregational  churches. 
When  one  calls  to  mind  the  history  of  this 
mode  of  v/orship,  that  it  ante-dates  the  Christian 
era,  and  belonged  to  the  Church  in  her  purest 
days,  it  would  seem  impossible  to  object  to  it  on 
the  score  of  innovation,  and  still  more  impossi- 
ble, as  not  in  keeping  with  the  simplest  and 
most  Christian  way  of  worshij)ping  God.  It  is 
nothing  more  than  the  reading  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture by  minister  and  people,  in  orderly  succes- 
sion ;  and  though  never  heard  of  before,  it  would 
surely  be  a  harmless  and  proper  thing.     There 

*  Note  IV.,  page  49. 


20  RESPONSIVE   WORSHIP. 

is  nothing  liierarchical  about  it,  but  tlie  reverse. 
A  minister  even  is  not  needed,  only  a  precentor 
or  leader  ;  and  not  so  much  as  this,  for,  as  in 
old  times,  the  congregation,  divided  into  two 
companies,-  might  respond  to  one  another.  It 
puts  it  into  the  power  of  any  people,  however 
humble,  to  worship  by  themselves,  without  help 
from  outside.  It  makes  Hymn-book  and  Bible 
into  one.  Christians  might  worship  in  this 
manner  in  sparse  neighborhoods  and  missionary 
districts,  where  no  minister  has  come,  and  where 
the  people  are  too  few  and  too  poor  to  support 
one  even  in  part.  Nay,  more  than  this,  where 
men  cannot  read,  and  where  they  have  no  books, 
even  were  they  able  to  read,  it  would  be  possible, 
in  this  way,  for  the  people  to  maintain  the  wor- 
ship of  Grod  among  themselves,  and  with  some 
variety  and  interest.  The  136th  Psalm  seems 
to  have  been  written  to  meet  a  case  similar  to 
this.  It  rehearses  the  events  of  Jewish  history, 
distinct  and  memorable  manifestations  of  God's 
mercy  to  that  people,  and  with  each  separate 
mention  of  the  goodness  of  God,  comes  the  re- 
sponse, "  For  his  mercy  endureth  forever '' — a 
verse  so  short  that  every  child's  memory  is  capa- 


RESPONSIVE   WORSHIP.  21 

ble  of  retaining  it,  and  so  appropriate  that  the 
most  instructed  worshipper  might  repeat  it  with 
pleasure  and  profit.  So  that,  in  any  community, 
where  a  single  person  able  to  read  can  be  found, 
and  any  one  able  to  pray  and  exhort,  by  aid  of 
this  simple  and  ancient  usage,  without  minister, 
without  singer,  without  ordination  and.  ordi- 
nances, the  true  worship  of  God  might  be  main- 
tained, and  with  a  sanctity  that  now  makes  the 
catacombs  of  Kome  a  more  consecrated  place 
than  St.  Peter's  with  its/' Pantheon  hung  in 
air." 

It  would  surely  be  a  matter  of  just  surprise, 
that  any  Christian,  or  any  body  of  Christians, 
recognizing  the  divine  authority  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  reverencing  the  usages  of  the  Church 
in  its  earliest  and  best  ages,  should  object  to  this 
mode  of  worship,  as  a  departure  from  the  teach- 
ings of  the  New  Testament,  and  an  innovation 
upon  the  simplicity  and  spirituality  of  Christian 
worship.  Such  objection  would  be  proof  only 
how  insensibly  some  have  drifted  away  from  his- 
toric Christianity,  and  allowed  the  common  in- 
heritance of  all  churches  of  Christ  to  be  involved 
in  the  schisms  consequent  upon  modern  contro- 


22  RESPONSIVE    WORSHIP. 

versies.  If  we  were  called  upon  to  give  a  warrant 
from  Holy  Scripture  for  our  present  universally 
accepted  "  service  of  song  in  the  House  of  the 
Lord/'  what  authority  could  we  bring  for  using 
metrical  versions  of  the  psalms,  and  hymns  of 
uninspired  writers  ?•'"  A  metrical  version  of  a 
psalm,- however,  and  a  hymn  usually  so  called, 
are  so  much  alike  that  the  distinction  of  name 
has  been  dropped  in  modern  boohs.  I  am  not 
saying  anything  against  this  mode  of  worship. 
It  is  the  outgrowth  o^  our  necessities  and  the 
fruit  of  our  Christian  liberty  to  order  the  wor- 
ship of  God's  house  so  as  to  make  it  attractive 
and  useful.  But  if  any  one  objects  to  the  use 
of  the  Psalms,  as  we  have  them  in  the  Bible, 
and  the  recitation  of  them  responsively,  I  remind 
him  that  this  form  of  worship  has  more  authority 
and  sanction  than  any  other.  If  we  must  have  a 
"  Thussaith  the  Lord,"  we  have  it  pre-eminently 
for  these  two  parts  of  divine  service — the  reading 
of  Holy  Scripture,  and  the  responsive  recitation 
or  singing  of  the  Psalms. 

It  is  said  our  Puritan  fathers  did  not  use  the 

*  Note  v.,  p.  56. 


RESPONSIVE    WORSHIP.  23 

Psalms  in  this  manner.  Neither  did  they  allow 
the  reading  of  the  Bible  as  a  part  of  worship ; 
coming,  as  they  did,  from  a  form  of  worship  in 
which  reading  was  so  disproportioned  as  to  he 
exclusive,  they  forbade  the  reading  of  the  Bible 
altogether,  except  in  the  way  of  exposition.  The 
Puritans  came  out  of  the  fire  of  persecution,  the 
smell  of  it  was  on  their  garments,  and  they  fell 
into  extremes,  which  in  them  were  pardonable, 
but  in  us  would  be  ridiculous.  They  forbade 
their  ministers  performing  the  rites  of  marriage, 
because  in  the  Koman  Catholic  Church  it  was  one 
of  the  sacraments,  and  they  would  prevent  all  mis- 
conception  or  misrepresentation  of  the  difference 
in  this  respect  between  them  and  Romanists,  and 
hence  they  required  marriages  to  be  legalized 
by  the  civil  magistrate.  So  they  inhibited  their 
ministers  praying  at  funerals,  and  this,  because 
Roman  Catholics  prayed  for  the  dead;  and  they 
would  prevent  all,  even  the  most  ignorant,  making 
a  mistake  as  to  their  belief  on  this  point.  In  these 
particulars,  and  in  many  others,  we  have  de- 
parted from  the  practices  of  our  fathers. 

But  in  this  departure  from  their  usages,  we 
have   onl/  been  obeying  the  principles  of  the 


24  RESPONSIVE    WORSHIP. 

Pilgrims,  who  had  the  good  sense  and  Christian 
magnanimity  ta  leave  their  descendants  as  free 
to  choose  as  they  were.  John  Kobinson,  their 
pastor,  when  bidding  good-by  to  the  half  of  the 
church  that  left  Holland  for  New  England, 
charged  them  not  to  imitate  Lutherans  and  Cal- 
vinists,  who  would  go  no  further  than  Luther 
and  Calvin  led  them.  "  He  charged  us,"  said 
Gov.  Winslow,  "  to  follow  him  no  further  than 
he  followed  Christ ;  and  if  God  should  reveal 
anything  to  us  by  any  other  instrument  of  his, 
to  be  as  ready  to  receive  it  as  we  were  to  receive 
anything  by  his  ministers  ;  for  he  was  very  con- 
fident the  Lord  had  more  truth  and  light  yet 
to  break  forth  out  of  his  holy  word."  Accord- 
ingly the  Pilgrims  never  laid  any  yoke  of 
authority  upon  any  soul,  or  any  church'.  When 
they  issued  to  the  world  their  views  of  Christian 
doctrine,  and  of  Church  polity,  they  were  care- 
ful to  say  that  they  claimed  no  authority  for 
even  these  most  sacred  and  fundamental  de- 
liverances ;  they  were  only  declaring,  they  said, 
what  they,  for  their  part,  thought  true,  and  they 
left  their  descendants,  nay,  they  required  their 
descendants  to  think  and  decide  for  themselves 


RESPONSIVE   WORSHIP.  25 

with  a  freedom,  unimpaired  by  any  act  of  theirs, 
and  subject  only  to  the  truth  and  spirit  of  God. 
There  is  nothing  sublimer  in  all  the  history  of 
religious  opinions  than  this  abnegation  of  the 
right  to  control  the  conscience  of  Christian  men, 
or  determine  the  belief  and  the  worship  of  Chris- 
tian churches. 

They  had  their  usages  in  the  exercise  of  their 
freedom  ;  we  have  our  usages  in  the  exercise  of 
an  equal  freedom.  With  a  great  price  did  our 
fathers  buy  this  freedom  for  themselves,  and 
-with  great  solemnity  did  they  bequeathe  it  to 
those  who  should  come  after  them.  For  us, 
therefore,  not  to  use  this  liberty,  but  to  consider 
ourselves  bound  by  forms  of  worship  which  they 
did  not  adopt  either  for  themselves  or  for  us, 
but  which,  in  point  of  fact,  have  grown  up  since 
their  time,  is  to  stultify  ourselves  and  dishonor 
them.  We  have  not  even  the  poor  defence  of 
doing  what  they  did,  while  we  wholly  mistake 
their  principles.  They  had  the  dignity  of  being 
freemen,  in  ordering  the  house  of  God  as  they 
saw  fit  in  the  light  they  had  ;  but  we,  if  we 
make  their  acts  into  arbitrary  laws  to  control 
our  conduct,  make  ourselves  slaves,  and  there- 


26  RESPONSIVE   WORSHIP. 

fore  not  their  children,  even  when  we  suppose 
we  most  closely  resemble  them.  To  refuse  to 
think  for  ourselves,  judge  for  ourselves,  and 
worship  God,  as  we  intelligently  decide  to  be 
most  for  his  glory  and  our  good,  and  our  chil- 
dren's ;  to  do  this  in  the  name  of  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  of  New  England,  as  Congregationalists 
bound  to  immobility  by  the  traditions  of  our 
polity,  is,  if  ignorance  be  not  the  apology,  flat 
treason.  In  consolidated  and  centralized 
churches,  where  the  local  congregation  has  not 
the  right  to  depart  from  the  letter  of  a  constitu- 
tion, or  the  decision  of  a  church  judicatory,  the 
loss  of  this  liberty  is  counterbalanced  by  the 
action  of  the  body  as  a  whole.  But  with  us,  in 
the  inheritance  of  a  polity  which  is  for  substance 
the  independence  of  the  local  church,  not  to  use 
this  independence  is  to  forfeit  our  distinctive 
privilege,  without  acquiring  the  benefits  belong- 
ing to  a  strong  and  compacted  government. 
Take  from  the  Puritan  his  doctrine  of  freedom 
of  conscience  in  the  name  of  Christ,  and  you 
take  from  him  his  crown  as  one  of  the  heroes  of 
the  world's  history.  Take  from  the  Congrega- 
tional polity  the  autonomy  of  the  local  church, 


RESPONSIVE    WORSHIP.  27 

as  the  bequest  of  the  Great  Head  of  the  Church, 
and  you  take  from  it  the  only  reason  it  has  for 
existence — you  make  it  not  only  a  sect,  but  the 
meanest  of  sects,  that  has  no  right  to  a  name 
among  the  tribes  of  Israel.  If  this  Congrega- 
tional freedom  means  anything,  it  means  that 
every  body  of  believers  shall  be  at  liberty  to  re- 
ceive and  act  upon  all  the  light  that  shall  break 
upon  them  from  every  quarter  ;  and  that  all  the 
churches  of  Christ,  recognizing  in  each  other 
this  freedom,  with  its  consequent  manifoldness 
of  development,  shall  work  out  the  problem  of 
the  unity  of  Christ's  Catholic  Church,  with  a 
breadth  and  beauty,  an  intensity  of  life  and 
power  of  co-action,  possible  upon  no  other  theory 
of  the  church. 

The  sole  question  for  this  church,  and  for 
every  church,  having  with  the  right  the  responsi- 
bility of  self-government,  is  this,  Will  the  use 
of  the  Psalms  responsively  assist  in  accomplish- 
ing the  ends  of  worship  ?  It  is  only  pastoral 
fidelity  on  my  part  to  say  that  I  think  it  ivillj 
and  that  this  conviction  has  grown  upon  me 
with  the  studies  and  experiences  of  a  pastorate 
of  more  than  thirty  years.     Let  me  present  some 


28  RESPONSIVE   WORSHIP. 

of  the  reasons  for  this  opinion,  and  ask  you  to 
consider  them  candidly  and  prayerfully,  and 
then,  in  the  exercise  of  your  right,  and  the 
discharge  of  your  responsibility,  decide  the 
question. 

1.  It  ought  to  be  unnecessary  to  begin  by 
saying,  that  there  can  be  no  harm  in  it.  It  is 
only  the  reading  of  the  Bible.  It  does  not  pro- 
pose so  much  as  to  sing  the  words,  and  it  would 
seem  that  a  Quaker  even  would  not  object  to 
this  use  of  the  Scriptures.  It  is  the  reading  of 
the  Bible  by  minister  and  people  taking  turns. 
And  if  nothing  more  could  be  said  in  its  favor, 
it  would  apparently  be  enough,  that  it  would 
help  to  fix  attention  upon  the  Word  of  God, 
banish  wandering  thoughts,  and  make  the  ser- 
vice real  instead  oi formal.  If  any  man  objects, 
and  declines  for  himself  to  read,  he  can  have  no 
valid  objection  against  according  the  privilege 
to  his  fellow-worshipper.  If  a  minority  only  in 
a  congregation  desired  to  worship  God  in  this 
way,  in  such  a  case  as  this  it  would  be  only 
Christian  courtesy,  on  the  part  of  a  majority,  to 
consent.  If  the  children  only  desired  it,  this 
would  be  reason  enough. 


RESPONSIVE   WORSHIP.  *    29 

It  has  been  said  to  be  an  Episcopal  way  of 
worship,  as  if  the  adoption  of  it  implied  a  going 
over  to  Episcopacy.  No  one  can  say  this,  who 
understands  the  use  of  language.  Episcopacy 
is  not  a  mode  of  worship,  but  of  Church  joolity. 
Congregationalism  is  not  a  mode  of  worship, 
but  of  polity.  Each  system  would  exist  intact, 
in  every  necessary  feature,  were  their  forms  of 
worship  interchanged  ;  were  the  book  ours,  and 
free  prayer  theirs.  It  is  simply  absurd,  there- 
fore, to  say  that  the  use  of  the  Psalms  respon- 
sively  is  Episcopal.  They  read  the  Psalter 
thus,  it  is  true,  and  their  ministers  read  the 
Bible  as  well ;  and  it  is  as  reasonable  to  say, 
that  it  is  Episcopal  for  ministers  to  read  the 
Bible  to  their  people,  as  to  say,  that  the  alter- 
nate reading  of  the  Psalter  by  minister  and  peo- 
ple is.  These  two  parts  of  Divine  Service  came 
into  the  English  Church  at  the  Reformation  ; 
they  are  there  in  the  interest  of  Protestantism, 
and  the  Christianity  of  the  earliest  ages.  They 
are  defences  against  ritualism.  You  look  in 
vain  for  them  in  the  Eoman  Catholic  Church. 
You  look  in  vain  for  them,  also,  in  the  Roman- 
izing portion  of  the  English   Church.     Where 


30  RESPONSIVE    WORSHIP. 

ritualists  order  the  worship,  they  uniformly  take 
responses  from  the  people,  and  give  them  to  the 
choh\  We  are  bound  as  Protestants,  and  par- 
ticularly as  Congregational  Protestants,  to  stand 
by  these  two  features  of  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  and  sympathize  with  that  portion  of  the 
Episcopal  Church  which  adheres  to  responsive 
reading. 

But  apart  from  this,  it  should  be  a  pleasure 
to  us,  to  approximate  our  fellow  Christians  of 
other  names,  in  every  permissible  way.  It  is 
our  duty  to  do  so.  While  Christ  is  praying  for 
the  unity  of  all  believers,  and  his  prayer  is  ours, 
we  should  do  all  wc  can  do,  in  the  way  of  con- 
senting faith  and  worship,  to  express  the  one- 
ness of  Christians.  Especially  should  we  delight 
to  do  this,  by  the  responsive  use  of  the  Psalms, 
which  has  the  sanction  of  all  antiquity,  was  the 
worship  of  the  Church,  when  she  bore  witness 
to  her  faith  with  her  blood,  the  worshij)  of 
Apostles,  of  Christ  himself,  of  kings  and  pro- 
phets, of  David,  of  the  Church  under  both  dis- 
pensations. 

2.  But  it  is  too  little  to  say,  there  is  no  harm 
in  it.     There  is  great  good  in  it ;  and  a  plain 


RESPONSIVE   WORSHIP.  31 

and  deep  philosophy  to  explain  the  good  it  does. 
It  is  a  fact  in  human  nature,  that  we  must  take 
part  in  a  thing,  personally  to  feel  it,  and  be 
wholly  in  it.  A  thought,  or  emotion,  is  doubly, 
trebly  our  own,  when  we  give  expression  to  it. 
The  mouth  has  much  to  do  with  the  heart ;  the 
hands  and  the  feet  have,  indeed  all  the  members 
of  the  body,  they  are  "  instruments  of  righteous- 
ness unto  God,"  but  the  mouth  most  of  all. 
^^With  the  heart,"  St.  Paul  says,  "man  be- 
lieveth  unto  righteousness,  but  with  the  mouth 
confession  is  made  unto  salvation."  The  utter- 
ance of  the  lips  reacts  upon  the  heart,  to  deepen 
the  feeling,  and  make  more  distinct  the  thought. 
David  calls  the  tongue  the  glory  of  his  frame. 
"  0  God  !  my  heart  is  fixed  ;  I  will  sing  and 
give  praise,  even  w^ith  my  glory."  "  Awake  up, 
my  glory,  awake  psaltery  and  harp,  I  myself 
^vill  awake  early."  "  Thou  hast  girded  me  with 
gladness,  to  the  end  that  my  glory  may  sing 
praise  to  thee,  and  not  be  silent."  In  the  sixty- 
third  Psalm,  which  the  early  Church  called  the 
Initiatory  Psalm,  because  they  sang  it  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  morning  worship,  David  says, 
^'  because  thy  loving-kindness  is  better  than  life, 


32  RESPONSIVE    WORSHIP. 

my  lips  shall  praise  tliee."  It  is  natural,  well- 
nigh  inevitahle,  to  say  with  the  mouth  what  we 
deeply  feel  in  the  heart.  We  cannot  worthily 
show  forth  the  praise  of  God  without  using  the 
voice.  It  is  therefore  Christian  wisdom  to  order 
the  worship  of  God,  so  that  each  worshipper 
may  have  some  part  in  it.  In  family  worship 
employ  your  own  voico  and  your  children's  ;  in 
the  greater  family  of  the  church,  let  it  he  possible 
for  all  voices  to  unite  in  some  part  of  the  ser- 
vice. If  all  could  sing,  or  chant,  this  would 
answer  the  purpose,  and  meet  the  want  insepa- 
rable from  human  hearts.  But  in  all  congrega- 
tions, there  is  not  an  inconsiderable  number, 
who  can  neither  sing  nor  chant,  and  who  have 
the  same  yoarniog  to  utter,  in  some  way,  the 
praise  of  God  ;  they  ought  to  do  it,  and  they 
c.in  do  it  only  by  reading.  It  is  the  wisdom  of 
the  Church,  therefore,  not  only  to  allow,  but  to 
assist  the  whole  congregation  to  use  this  mode 
of  worship.  It  is  a  duty  to  multiply  means  of 
grace,  until  the  necessities  of  all  classes  are  pro- 
vided for,  and  not  a  worshipper  that  can  and 
wants  to  unite,  is  denied  the  privilege. 

3.  It  is,  in  this  connection,  a  strong  reason  for 


REaPONSlVE    WORSHIP.  33 

introducing  this  use  of  the  Psalms  into  the  pub- 
lic worship  of  God  in  the  great  congregation, 
that  the  children  in  the  Sunday  Schools  have 
long  been  accustomed  to  it,  and  having  been 
brought  up  to  it,  they  will  enjoy  and  profit  by 
this  participation  in  the  service.  It  will  be  a 
new  and  tender  bond  binding  together  old  and 
young,  parents  and  children,  in  the  common 
worship  of  God,  before  whom  disparity  of  age 
dwindles  to  a  point. 

"  What  are  all  prayers  beneath, 
But  cries  of  babes,  that  cannot  know 

Half  the  deep  thought  they  breathe  ? 
In  his  own  words  we  Christ  adore  ; 

But  angels,  as  we  speak. 
Higher  above  our  meaning  soar, 

Than  we,  o'er  children  weak." 

This,  at  least,  is  certainly  true,  that  if  it  be 
wrong,  or  inexpedient  for  adults  to  worship  in 
this  way,  it  is  quite  as  much  so  to  train  our 
children  to  it  in  the  Sunday  School.  But  it  will 
not  be  easy  to  extirpate  the  practice  from  our 
schools  ;  it  has  approved  itself,  by  experience,  to 
superintendents  and  teachers,  and  it  has  already 


34  RESPONSIVE   WORSHIP. 

accomplislied  much  by  enlisting  in  the  worship 
the  hearts  of  the  children,  along  with  their 
voices. 

4.  And  what  is  true  of  the  Sunday  School  has 
been  found  no  less  true  of  the  larger  school  of 
the  Church.  Congregations,  that  have  em- 
ployed the  Psalms  responsively,  have  found  the 
practice  useful  and  delightful.*  It  has  made 
more  interesting  the  worship  of  God  ;  banished 
listlessness  and  indifference ;  made  it  possible 
for  some  to  take  part,  who  previously  were  com- 
pelled to  be  silent ;  and  by  the  manifest  good 
effects  that  have  followed,  it  has  answered  ob- 
jections, and  approved  itself  by  the  warmth  and 
sympathy  it  has  diffused  through  the  assembly. 
A  simple  thing  in  itself,  it  is  a  great  thing  in  its 
influence.  It  would  be  a  great  thing,  if  it  only 
served,  in  any  measure,  to  break  up  inattention, 
and  counteract  the  tendency  of  a  congregation, 
that  is  sung  to,  and  preached  to,  to  be  mere 
spectators  of  the  worship  of  God.  The  principle 
that  lies  at  the  root  of  this,  if  there  be  any 
principle  in  it,  is  hierarchical  not  popular,  rit- 

*Note  VI.,  p.  58. 


RESPONSIVE   WORSHIP.  35 

Ucil  not  spiritual.  Men  do  not  come  to  churcb, 
or  ought  not,  to  witness  a  spectacle,  or  have 
their  feelings  played  upon  passively ;  at  least, 
this  is  not  the  Protestant  theory.  We  believe 
that  men  are  to  "  work  out  their  own  salvation,'' 
and  that  ^^  Grod  works  in  them  to  will  and  to 
do," — that  true  religion  is  a  life,  and  that  sal- 
vation is  the  outcome  of  a  co-  operation  between 
man  and  God,  and  consequently  the  services  of 
God's  house  should  not  only  teach  a  man  to 
do  something  at  once,  but  also  give  him  the 
opportunity.  It  contradicts  our  theology  to 
exclude  the  people  from  worship,  and  divide 
it  all  between  minister  and  choir.  It  robs 
the  sabbath  of  a  large  part  of  its  power 
as  a  preface  to  the  week,  to  give  the  peo- 
ple nothing  to  do.  It  is  not  enough  to 
instruct,  it  is  necessary  also  to  train.  Know- 
ledge is  in  order  to  action  ;  by  using,  men 
make  the  good  gifts  of  God  their  own.  And 
this  is  as  true  of  the  first  day,  as  of  the  other 
six  days  of  the  week  ;  it  applies  to  the  sanc- 
tuary, as  to  all  other  places.  There  is,  there- 
fore, a  solemn  responsibility  resting  upon  our 
churches,  to  -order  the   worship  of  God  so  as 


36  RESPONSIVE    WORSHIP. 

to  make  it  the  most  effective  for  good.  To  i\ 
large  extent,  as  at  present  conductedj  it  is  in- 
operative and  repellent.  It  may  be  made,  to  as 
great  an  extent,  an  attraction  to  the  house  of 
Gody  and  a  help  in  the  way  of  life.  But  to  do 
this,  the  people  must  have  part  in  it.  They 
should  pray,  and  sing,  and  read,  as  well  as  hear. 
.  Whatever  makes  the  worship  more  social,  more 
general  and  universal,  widens  and  deepens  its 
influence  ;  whatever  tends  to  make  it  official 
and  exclusive,  removes  it  from  popular  sympa- 
thy, and  tends  to  the  oldest  and  Avorst  heresy  of 
the  Christian  Church,  that  religion  is  the  busi- 
ness of  a  class,  and  that  the  grace  of  God  is 
derived  from  sacraments,  not  from  the  Word 
of  God.  Congregational  singing  has  the  won- 
derful power  it  has,  because  it  expresses  com- 
munity of  feeling.  And  this  must  be  expressed 
in  any  movement  that  carries  the  people  with 
it.  So  the  Church  has  made  progress  in  all 
the  great  eras  of  its  histor}^  So  the  German 
Eeformation  became  a  popular  enthusiasm.  So 
Methodism  triumphed.  So  armies  have  marched 
to  battle,  prepared  to  accept  victory  or  death  ; 
and  such  a  spirit  must  be  victorious.     Nations 


RESPONSIVE    WORSHIP.  37 

have  been  great,  and  their  annals  illustrious,  as 
their  hearts  have  been  in  their  national  songs, 
and  they  have  used  this  means  of  massing  them- 
selves in  one.  I  am  not  claiming  for  responsive 
readings  an  undue  influence  ;  I  do  not  think 
they  equal  the  influence  that  popular  hymns 
and  songs  exert  as  they  are  chanted  and  sung. 
Singing  is  the  natural  medium  by  which  highly 
wrought  feeling  expresses  itself,  and  musical 
notes  have  a  distinctive  power  of  their  own. 
But  the  mingling  of  many  voices,  in  the  recita- 
tion of  psalms,  is  of  the  nature  of  singing  ;  and 
displacing,  as  it  does,  no  other  form,  while  it 
draws  forth  voices  that  otherwise  were  silent,  it 
enlarges  the  province  and  multiplies  the  methods 
of  common  worship.  And  for  this  purpose  it  is 
invaluable — we  cannot  disj)ense  with  it,  so  long 
as  only  in  this  way  all  the  people  can  participate 
in  the  service.  And  is  it  not,  in  itself,  a  blessed 
and  fruitful  thing,  to  repeat,  in  unison  with 
a  consenting  congregation,  the  most  consecrated 
words'  of  the  language,  freighted  with  the  dear- 
est memories  of  the  Church  of  God  !  How 
blessed  the  privilege  to  each  worshipper,  to 
utter  for  himself  these  consecrated  words   of 


38  RESPONSIVE    WORSHIP. 

prayer  and  praise,  and  find  himself  not  alone, 
but  up-borne  by  a  sea  of  voices,  and  in  fellow- 
ship, not  only  with  companions  and  friends 
about  him,  but  with  the  praising  Church  of  all 
ages  !  And  what  a  fellowship  is  this,  made 
possible  to  us  by  the  use  of  these  Psalms  of 
David  ;  how  we  join  ourselves  to  "  the  glorious 
company  of  the  apostles,''  "the  goodly  fellow- 
ship of  the  prophets,"  "  the  noble  army  of  mar- 
tyrs," "the  holy  church  throughout  all  the 
world  ;"  how  near  we  come  to  Moses,  and  Da- 
vid, and  David's  Son  ;  how  their  words  become 
our  words,  their  thoughts  our  thoughts,  and 
their  God  our  God  ! 

5.  Finally,  let  me  end  as  I  began,  with  re- 
minding you  of  the  supreme  importance  of  wor- 
ship. It  is  our  training  here,  and  our  destiny 
hereafter.  All  things  arc  subordinated  to  it. 
The  preaching  of  the  Gospel  is  but  a  means  to 
it.  True,  "  it  pleased  God  by  the  foolishness 
of  preaching  to  save  them  that  believe  ;"  but 
believers  are  saved,  that  they  may  worship,  and 
Ihch'  eternal  life  is  in  it.  We  must  know  the 
Gospel,  that  wo  may  know  the  God  and  Saviour 
we  have  to  worship  ;  and    that  we  may  have 


RESPONSIVE    WORSHIP.  39 

hearts  to  do  it,  we  need  God's  Holy  Spirit,  whose 
office-woriv  is  ti  preparation  for  worship.  Regen- 
eration is  the  birth  of  it,  and  the  in-dwelling  of 
the  Spirit  of  God  the  life  of  it.  Whatever,  there- 
fore, qualifies  us  the  better  for  this — whatever 
facilitates  the  expression  of  it,  and  deepens  the 
desire  for  it,  is  contributing  most  directly  and 
most  powerfully  to  God's  highest  glory,  in  us 
and  by  us.  And  Avhile  this  is  true  of  us  indi- 
vidually, it  is  no  less  true  of  us  collectively  in 
our  church  estate.  The  matter  and  mode  of  our 
worship  is  of  more  importance  to  the  souls  of 
men,  and  the  progress  of  the  Redeemer's  king- 
dom, than  the  articulation  and  systematizing  of 
our  doctrinal  belief.  The  theology  we  put  into 
our  prayers,  and  confessions,  and  thanksgiv- 
ings, is  that  part  of  it  which  has  most  to  do 
with  human  salvation ;  and  it  is  Christian 
doctrine  in  its  most  sacred  relation  to  the  soul, 
leading  to  Christ,  and  doing  the  work  of  sanc- 
tification. 

In  addition  to  this,  let  us  bear  in  mind  that 
the  subject  of  worship  must  become  more  and 
more  a  subject  of  care  and  study  to  the  Church. 
In  the  beginning,  when  Christianity  was  first 


40  respojS'sive  worship. 

promulged,  and  now  where  the  Missionary  or 
Evangelist  goes  to  publish  the  Gospel  to  the 
destitute^,  preaching  is,  of  necessity,  the  great 
business  and  chief  duty.  But  after  this,  when 
'  churches  are  organized,  when  the  doctrines  of  the 
Gospel  are  understood,  and  a  Christian  sentiment 
is  established,  worship  becomes  so  important  as 
to  occupy  the  first  place  ;  for  it  is  Christianity 
applied,  the  religion  of  Christ  in  exercise,  it  be- 
comes the  hunger  of  a  soul  truly  converted,  and 
it  is  the  medium  through  which  come  to  the 
believer  his  sweetest  joys  and  best  experiences. 
And  then  again,  as  culture  advances,  culture  of 
mind  and  heart,  as  the  work  of  Christian  civil- 
ization widens  and  deepens,  as  Christian  charac- 
ter assumes  a  higher  type,  as  our  homes  become 
the  abode  of  greater  purity,  gentleness  and  peace, 
and  society  is  leavened  by  a  more  pervasive  sense 
of  eternal  things,  worship  will  demand  and  re- 
ceive a  more  thoughtful  and  prayerful  study, 
and  its  methods  become  more  various,  and  beau- 
tiful, and  spiritual.  There  is  even  now  an 
increasing  number  of  persons  whose  spiritual 
wants  require  less  preaching  and  more  worship- 
ping ;  they  accept  the  system  of  divine  truth  as 


RESPONSIVE  Worship.  41 

revealed  in  the  Scriptures,  and  do  not  need  to 
have  these  fundamental  doctrines  re-stated  and 
argued,  possibly  on  a  lower  key  and  with  less 
power;  but  they  do  want  opportunities  and 
offices,  by  which  they  can  express,  with  all  the 
depth  and  tenderness  the  Word  of  God  puts 
within  their  reach,  the  penitence  and  faith,  the 
joy  and  hope  with  which  these  great  truths  fill 
their  souls.  And  it  is  not  only  a  matter  of  cul- 
ture, but  of  spiritual  experience  and  growth  as 
well.  Not  a  few  are  finding  in  the  social  prayer- 
meetings  of  the  church  a  strength  and  refresh- 
ment they  do  not  find  in  the  less  spiritual  ser- 
vices of  the  sanctuary.  God  also  has,  of  late 
years,  signally  honored  the  humbler  gatherings 
of  his  people  for  j^rayer  and  praise  in  the  con- 
version of  sinners. 

For  all  these  reasons  I  commend  to  you  the 
ordering  of  the  worship  of  God  in  the  sanctuary, 
and  pray  you  to  make  use  especially  of  what  the 
Scriptures  put  within  your  reach  in  the  Psalms, 
as  one  means  of  engaging  all  the  people  in  some 
part  of  the  service.  Study  to  know  better  the 
resources  of  the  Book  of  God,  as  a  treasury  of 
"sound  words,"  fitted  to  be  forms  of  prayer  and 


42  RESPONSIVE    WORSHIP. 

praise  for  all  persons.  Study  to  have  something 
in  every  service,  that  every  comer  to  the  sanc- 
tuary may  make  use  of  it,  if  he  will.  Do  not 
discourage  the  people  saying  "Amen,  at  thy 
giving  of  thanks,"  if  their  hearts  prompt  them 
thus  to  make  the  prayer  their  own.  Let  the  chil- 
dren have  something  to  say  and  do.  If  old  enough 
to  read,  let  them  read  with  the  great  congrega- 
tion. If  too  young  to  read,  and  only  able  to 
syllable  ^'Our  Father,"  let  their  tiny  voices 
mingle  with  the  deeper  tones  of  fathers  and 
mothers,  as  all  together  express  their  common 
childhood  before  our  common  Father  who  is  in 
Heaven.  "  Both  young  men  and  maidens  ;  old 
men  and  children  :  let  them  praise  the  name  of 
the  Lord.  Let  the  high  praises  of  God  be  in 
their  mouth.  Praise  God  in  his  sanctuary.  Let 
every  thing  that  hath  breath  praiSe  the  Lord. 
Praise  ye  the  Lord." 


NOTES 


NOTE  I.— PAGE  II. 

I  am  greatly  indebted  to  that  distinguished 
Biblical  scholar,  Kev.  Thomas  J.  Conant,  D.D., 
for  a  learned  and  valuable  letter,  written  .ifter 
reading  a  report  of  this  sermon,  published  in  the 
New  York  Daily  Witness.     He  says  of  it : 

"I  read  the  report  of  your  sermon  with  very 
great  interest  and  pleasure.  I  fully  agree  with  you 
in  your  main  position  in  regard  to  the  propriety 
and  the  utility  of  the  responsive  reading  of  the 
Psalms  in  the  public  services  of  the  sanctuary.  I 
hope  you  will  continue  to  urge  this  subject  on  the 
attention  of  churches  and  congregations.  Of  the 
propriety  and  utility  of  the  practice  which  you 
advocate,  no  Christian  disciple  can  surely  have  any 
doubt.  For  many  years  I  have  been  in  the  habit 
of  saying  that  our  mode  of  conducting  the  services 
of  the  sanctuary  has  banished  God's  Word  from  his 
house.     The  little  that  is  read  from  the  Bible  is 


44  NOTES. 

scarcely  attended  to,  the  congregation  taking  no 
part  in  it.  Few  take  a  Bible  to  the  house  of  God, 
having  little  or  no  use  for  it  there." 

I  am  beholden  to  Dr.  Con  ant  for  the  following 
information  in  regard  to  the  synagogue  worship: 

"  I  have  looked,  as  the  occasion  offered,  into  the 
authorities  on  the  primitive  synagogue  service.  I 
fear  it  is  not  practicable  to  establish  anything  more 
than  is  intimated  in  the  New  Testament.  Aside 
from  that,  nothing  appears  to  be  known  of  the  syna- 
gogue service  till  after  the  destruction  of  the  Second 
Temple.  What  it  then  gradually  became,  as  in- 
ferred from  writings  of  considerably  later  date,  you 
find  briefly  stated  in  the  paragraph  commencing 
near  the  top  of  page  14,  in  the  Introduction  to 
Lange's  Commentary  on  the  Psalms.  The  allusion 
to  Hiymns  in  rhyme'  (pismon),  in  the  recitation  of 
which  the  congregation  united,  answering  with 
passages  from  the  Bible  in  other  responses,  is  from 
the  work  of  Zunz,  on  the  Synagogue  Poetry  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  p.  89  (full  title  not  given  by  Lange). 
On  the  preceding  page  (p.  88),  Zunz  speaks  of 
another  practice,  the  congregation  repeating  sen- 
tences after  the  leader,  or  interposing  brief  ejacula- 
tions.   Nothing  can  be  inferred,  therefore,  as  to  the 


NOTES.  45 

earliest  practice  of  the  synagogue.  The  article 
Synagogue,  m  Smith's  Bible  Dictionary,  is  shame- 
fully meagre.  The  same  article  in  the  2d  edition 
of  Kitto's  Biblical  Cyclopedia,  by  Ginsburg,  the 
most  competent  man  in  England  for  such  a  service, 
is  very  thorough  and  nearly  exhaustive." 


NOTE  II.— PAGE   13. 

Dr.  Conant,  in  the  letter  from  which  I  have 
quoted  above  respecting  the  synagogue  worship, 
says  : 

^•'  Of  the  practice  of  the  early  Christian  Church, 
the  most  important  ancient  testimony  is  the  ex- 
jn-ession  you  refer  to  in  Pliny's  letter  to  Trajan 
(Lib.  X.,  Ep.  97)."  Doering,  the  best  editor  of 
Phny's  epistles,  commenting  on  the  words,  Car- 
menque  Chrlsto  quasi  Deo  dicere  secum  invicem  (in 
German,  which  I  take  the  liberty  to  translate),  says : 
'Although  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that  carmen  is 
also  used  of  a  solemn  form  of  prayer  or  utterance, 
(Paneg.  53,  92),  yet  it  is  very  probable  that  as  early 
as  that  time  the  Christians  called  upon  the  Deity 
in  songs.'     Tertullian,  Apol.   2,  says  expressly,  ad 


46  NOTES. 

canendum  Christo  lit  Deo.  In  early  times,  and  this 
is  matter  of  fact,  antiphonies  became  usual  in  the 
Christian  Church  (and  to  this  secummvicem  points, 
which  Herbst  falsely  translates  in  common^  together, 
and  Giesig  even  regards  as  cumbersome  and  super- 
fluous), the  presbyter  leading  off,  and  the  congre- 
gation repeating  or  responding.  Naturally  their 
utterances  or  prayers  took  on  a  kind  of  melody ; 
and  Herder  assumes,  expressly  refen-ing  to  this 
passage,  that  the  Psalms  were  then  used  as  being 
fittest  for  it,  the  parallelism  of  itself  favoring  a  kind 
of  chant." 

The  chief  work  on  ancient  and  mediaeval  hymn- 
ology,  is  by  H.  A.  Daniel — Thesaurus  Tiijmno- 
logicum,  sive  hymnorum,  canficorum,  sequenti- 
arum  coVectio  amplissima.  Vols.  I.-V.  8vo. 
1847-56.  It  is  the  most  complete  collection  of 
the  sacred  poetry  of  the  ancient  and  mediseval 
church.  It  is  in  the  Astor  Library.  The  next 
most  complete  collection  of  Latin  hymns,  witli  a 
few  in  Greek,  is  by  F.  J.  More — Lateinische 
Hymnen  des  Mittelalters,  &c.  Vols.  I.-III. 
8vo.  The  introduction  and  notes  are  in  the 
German  language.     It  is  in  the  Astor  Library. 

Thirteen  ancient  Greek  hymns,  mostly  from 


NOTES.  47 

tlie  Old  and  New  Testaments,  are  inserted  after 
the  Psalms  in  the  Alexandrine  MS.  of  the  Greek 
version  of  the  Old  Testament ;  among  them  a 
morning  hymn,  of  which  the  still  older  form 
given  by  Daniel  is  the  original  of  the  Gloria  in 
Excelsis. 


NOTE  111.— PAGE  17. 
The  doctrine  of  the  apostle  evidently  is  that  the 
Christian  Church  answers  now  to  the  priesthood 
of  the  ancient  dispensation ;  that  either  separately 
or  together  they  constitute  the  temple  of  God; 
and  that  their  praises  and  prayers  are  the  sacrifices 
that  take  the  place  of  the  material  offerings,  made 
formerly  by  an  order  of  men  in  a  material  house, 
and  by  outward  things.  The  sacrifices  of  the  law 
were  types  and  prophecies  of  Christ,  and  so  ceased 
to  be  offered  in  material  forms,  when  Christ  came 
and  made  an  offering  of  himself  "  once  for  all."  So 
the  temple  and  the  priesthood  represented  him, 
and  ceased  in  him.  Now  it  is  the  profound  and 
animating  doctrine  of  the  New  Testament  that  the 
Christian  Church,  the  creation  of  Christ's  atoning 


48  NOTES. 

sacrifice,  and  the  recipient  of  his  sanctifying  Spirit, 
stands  in  liis  place,  receives  liis  name,  and  in  him 
becomes  temple,  priest,  and  sacrifice.  It  is  a  doc- 
trine covering  mnch  more  ground  than  that  of 
formal  worship.  Christians  present  themselves  to 
God,  ''their  bodies  a  living  sacrifice"  (Rom.  12 : 1), 
the  world  becomes  one  vast  temple,  every  Chris- 
tian's life  a  psalm.  Sacrifices,  now,  are  not  "  bulls 
and  goats,''  but  "  the  fruit  of  lips  giving  thanks  to 
God;"  and  "to  do  good  and  communicate,"  not 
the  incense  of  a  burning  censer,  is  *•'  an  odor  of  a 
sweet  smell,  a  sacrifice  acceptable,  well-pleasing  to 
God."  Christian  worship  in  the  sanctuary,  and  on 
the  Lord's  Day,  is  only  the  first-fruits  of  the  Vvcek 
it  prefaces;  it  is  a  sign  only  of  the  higher  and 
better  worship,  of  which  the  living  spirit  is  the 
offering,  and  life  the  service.  The  greater,  how- 
ever, of  necessity,  includes  the  less.  If  the  whole 
meaning  of  the  ancient  ritual  is  now  to  be  found 
in  the  body  of  Christian  befievers,  if  they  are  liouse, 
priest,  sacrifice,  altogether,  much  more  is  God's 
public  worship  to  be  performed,  not  by  oflBcers  and 
representatives  of  the  church,  but  by  the  church 
itself. 

Leighton,  in  his  comment  upon  the  text,  says, 
"As   the  worship  and  ceremonies   of  the  Jewish 


NOTES.  49 

Chnrcli  were  all  shadows  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  have 
then-  accomplishment  in  him,  not  only  after  a 
singular  manner  in  his  own  person,  but  in  a  de- 
rived way  in  his  mystical  body,  his  church;  the 
priesthood  of  the  law  represented  him  as  the  great 
High  Priest,  that  '  offered  up  himself  for  our  sins,' 
and  that  is  altogether  incommunicable  ;  neither  is 
there  any  peculiar  office  of  priesthood  for  offering 
sacrifice  in  the  Christian  Church,  but  his  alone 
who  is  head  of  it.  But  this  dignity  that  is  here 
mentioned  of  a  *  spiritual  priesthood'  offering 
*  spiritual  sacrifice,'  is  common  to  all  those  that 
are  in  Christ ;  as  they  are  living  stones  built  on 
him  into  a  spiritual  temple,  so  they  are  priests  of 
that  same  temple  made  by  him.  Eev.  1:6.  As  he 
was,  after  a  transcendent  manner,  temple,  and 
priest,  and  sacrifice;  so,  in  their  kind,  are  Christians 
all  these  three  through  him ;  and  by  his  Spirit  that 
is  in  them,  their  offerings  through  him  are  made 
acceptable." 


NOTE  IV.— PAGE   19. 
No  one  who  has  worshipped  of  late  years,  in  the 
dissenting  congregations  of  England  and  Scotland, 


50  NOTES. 

has  failed  to  notice  the  ease  and  heartiness  with 
which  the  Psalms  are  chanted,  and  apparently  by 
all  the  people.  It  has  given  new  life  and  power  to 
non-liturgical  forms  of  worship  in  those  lands. 
The  eminent,  and  now  venerable,  Rev.  Thomas 
Binney,  testifies  in  strong  terms  to  the  benefits 
accruing  from  this  practice  in  the  Weigh-house 
Chapel.  Rev.  Henry  AUon,*  of  London,  says: 
"  God  has  not  given  us  a  Christian  David.  No 
book  of  inspired  song  contributes  to  the  canon 'of 
the  New  Testament.  Among  manifold  reasons, 
perhaps,  for  this — that  in  the  Jewisli  psalms  a  suf- 
ficient provision  of  Biblical  song  is  made  for  the 
religious  life  of  humanity.  We  never  think  of  these 
Psalms  as  the  psalter  of  the  Jewish  Church  only. 
We  instinctively  feel  that  they  have  a  broader 
character,  and  are  designed  for  a  more  Catholic 
use.  We  of  this  nineteenth  Christian  century  have 
no  expressions  for  our  various  religious  experiences 
so  adequate  as  David's.  When  we  pray  most  fer- 
vently, we  use  his  words ;  when  we  praise  the  most 
rapturously,  we  seize  his  harp." 

"  Let  the  rhythmical  psalm  be  properly  sung," 
he  says,  "  and  the  flexibility  of  the  chant  will  en- 

*  Ecclesia.    The  Worship  of  the  Church,  p.  438. 


NOTES.  51 

able  a  more  deliberate  and  reverent,  a  more  articu- 
late and  emphatic,  because  a  more  natural  expres- 
sion, than  even  in  the  metrical  hymn.  In  the 
rhythmical  psalm,  any  time  may  be  taken  that  the 
articulation  of  words  and  meaning  may  require ; 
words  may  be  grouped,  emphasis  may  be  given 
according  to  the  sense,  all  the  delicate  lights  and 
shades  of  meaning  may  be  perfectly  and  easily  pre- 
served. In  refusing,  therefore,  to  sing  the  Bible 
Psalms  to  their  fitting  music,  simply  because  in  the 
Romish  and  Anglican  churches  they  had  been  sung 
iiTeverently,  our  Puritan  forefathers  permitted 
themselves  to  be  driven  into  an  extreme,  which  was 
a  far  more  serious  impoverishment  of  worship-song 
than  their  interdict  upon  liturgies  and  organs;  the 
latter  were  but  modes,  the  former  was  part  of  the 
very  substance  of  Divine  song.  We  can  only  urge 
as  their  excuse,  that  they  fought  an  arduous  battle, 
and  to  save  their  citadel  often  had  to  raise  their 
suburbs.  Far  more  justifiable  were  they  than  some 
among  ourselves,  who  make  their  necessity  our 
choice,  and  determine  that  the  beautiful  suburbs 
of  our  sacred  city  shall  continue  to  be  desolate. 
They  thought  that  the  best  corrective  of  abuse  was 
disuse ;  we  continue  to  disuse,  because  indolence  or 
blind  tradition  hinders  us  from  justly  determining 


52  NOTES. 

the  use.  The  conclusion  of  reason  and  common 
sense  is,  that  we  sing  each  kind  of  sacred  song  to 
the  music  that  is  adapted  to  it — a  rhythmical  psalm 
to  an  unmetrical  chant — a  metrical  hymn  to  a 
metrical  tune.  It  is  equally  preposterous  to  change 
the  form  of  the  rhythmical  psalm,  that  it  may 
fit  a  metrical  tune ;  and  to  change  the  form  of 
a  rhythmical  chant,  that  it  may  fit  a  metrical 
hymn." 

In  the  same  Yolume,*  which  consists  of  Essays 
on  Church  Problems,  edited  by  Dr.  Reynolds, 
President  of  Cheshunt  College,  Rev.  J.  Guinness 
Rogers,  WTiting  of  the  "  Congregationalism  of  the 
Future,"  uses  the  following  language  : 

"  The  opposition  to  the  chanting  of  psalms  and 
passages  of  Scripture  is  unintelligible  from  the 
ISlonconformist  point  of  yiew.  Dissenters  have 
always  been  distinguished  by  their  reverence  for 
God's  Word,  and  there  seems,  therefore,  to  be 
strange  inconsistency  in  their  objection  to  use  the 
inspired  words  in  their  songs  of  praise,  with  the 
notion  that  by  employing  hymns  they  escape  the 
taint  of  Romanism  or  Anglicanism.  Strange  to 
say,  on  the  opposite  side,  an  excessive  use  of  hymns 

*  Ecclesia.     First  Series,  p.  478. 


XOTICS;  53 

appears  to  be  becoming  a  sign  of  Kitiuilisni,  and  we 
may  expect  to  see  the  Evangelicals  regarding  them 
with  suspicion.  Looked  at,  abstractedly,  however, 
the  opposition  to  the  chanting  of  psalms  on  the 
ground  of  a  principle  is  a  peculiarity  of  Dissenting 
life  wliich  can  be  traced  to  nothing  but  strong  an- 
tipathy to  Anglican  practices.  It  has  not  a  vestige 
of  argument  to  allege  in  its  favor,  and  is  at  best  a 
mere  traditional  prejudice  which  would  soon  yield 
to  the  influence  of  a  more  truly  Catholic  spirit. 
There  might,  of  course,  still  be  churches  who 
would  hesitate  to  adopt  the  practice  in  their  own 
worship  on  grounds  of  expediency,  but  theirs  is  an 
entirely  different  position  from  that  of  those  who 
object  to  the  Psalms,  not  because  it  is  difficult  for  a 
congregation  to  render  them  effectively,  but  be- 
cause it  is  disloyal  to  Dissenting  principles  to 
chant  them  at  all — -an  objection  which,  it  must 
be  frankly  owned,  is  nothing  more  than  an  ex- 
pression of  sectarian  narrowness.*' 

We  are,  in  this  country,  happily  free  from  some 
of  the  difficulties  with  wliich  our  more  enhghtened 
brethren  in  the  mother  country  are  contending, 
and  which  are  due  to  the  presence  and  over- 
shadowing influence  of  an  Established  Church. 
Such  controversies,  at  once  religious  and  political, 


54  NOTES. 

are  embittering  and  narrowing  in  their  effect  upon 
most  minds,  and  especially  upon  those  who  keenly 
feel  the  injustice  done  their  intelligent  and  con- 
scientious belief.  But  we,  in  this  country,  have 
our  work  to  do,  a  work  not  less  difficult  in  our  cir- 
cumstances, and  still  more  important  with  refer- 
ence to  the  future  of  Christ's  church.  It  would  be 
a  shame,  indeed,  if  in  this  free  land,  and  with  our 
costly  inheritance  of  a  reformed  faith,  we  should 
give  up  all  our  advantages,  and  fall  behind  the 
apostles  of  Eomanism,  and  the  reactionaries  of  our 
own  Protestant  communions.  If  Eomanizers  and 
Ritualists  get  the  popular  ear,  and  make  headway 
against  our  historic  Protestantism,  they  will  be 
fairly  entitled  to  their  success,  for  it  will  be  by  the 
use  of  a  more  enlightened  freedom,  fighting  us  with 
our  own  weapons,  while  we  sink  into  a  dead,  and  in 
us  shamefully  inconsistent  formalism. 

The  following  remarks  by  Mr.  Rogers  are  not 
less  pertinent  in  this  country  than  in  England; 
and  they  are  as  instructive,  as  they  are  just :  "  The 
Rituahsts,  it  must  be  confessed,  have  taught  all 
parties  a  lesson  in  this  respect.  They  have  claimed 
for  themselves  a  freedom  that  to  an  outsider  seems< 
scarcely  compatible  with  obedience  to  the  laws  of 
their  own  church,  and  in  the  exercise  of  it  they 


NOTES.  55 

have  endeavored  to  graft  upon  their  system  plans 
which  seemed  to  be  good  and  successfnl,  and  at  the 
same  time  not  inconsistent  with  their  ovv'u  Catholic 
principles,  in  the  practices  of  other  churches. 
They  have  borrowed  largely  from  Methodism,  as 
well  as  from  Romanism ;  and  though  they  have 
sometimes  caricatured  the  usages  they  have  intro- 
duced, there  has  been  no  unwillingness  to  forsake 
old  paths,  when  they  could  find  new  ones  which 
promised  to  conduct  them  more  rapidly  and  cer- 
tainly to  the  goal  which  they  have  in  view.  So 
little  sympathy  have  they  with  the  stately  dignity 
hitherto  associated  with  High  Churchism,  they 
have  been  ready  to  avail  themselves  of  any  or  every 
expedient  which  seemed  likely  to  secure  a  gTcater 
amount  of  popular  sympathy  and  attention.  They 
have  had  recourse  to  the  preached  instead  of  the 
written  sermon.  They  have  introduced  consider- 
able variety  in  the  style  and  form  of  service.  They 
have  studied  the  wants  of  the  people,  and  the  means 
which  other  parties  have  adopted  in  order  to  meet 
them;  and  those  who  least  approve  of  the  ends 
they  have  been  seeking  are,  nevertheless,  bound  to 
command  not  only  the  zeal  and  industry  with 
which  they  have  worked,  but  also  the  anxiety  they 
have  shown  to  become  all  things  to  all  men,  that 


56  NOTES. 

so  tliey  might  by  all  means  gain  some.  Surely 
others  may  profit  by  their  example,  and  v/hilc 
retaining  all  that  is  felt  to  be  essential,  cultivate 
that  practical  wisdom  which  seeks  to  comprehend 
the  circumstances  and  demands  of  the  age,  and  to 
provide  for  them  accordingly.  Congregationalists 
should  be  the  first  to  emancipate  themselves  from  a 
bondage  to  mere  traditionalism,  and  to  show  a  true 
catholicity  by  gathering  wisdom  in  every  quarter, 
and  profiting  by  the  experience  of  other  churches 
for  the  improvement  of  their  own  organization." 


NOTE  v.— PAGE  22. 

I  am  indebted  to  the  Rev.  Leonard  Bacon,  D.D., 
of  Xew  Haven,  for  a  letter,  in  which  he  says:  "I 
have  read,  with  approval,  your  sermon  on  the  use 
of  the  Psalms  in  public  worship.  On  one  point  I 
think  your  position  might  be  strengthened.  Look 
into  John  Robinson's  works.  Vol.  III.,  p.  434,  and 
you  will  see  that  the  Pilgrims  (though  they  did 
not  use  the  Psalms  responsively),  were  resolute 
psalm-singers,  as  the  Scotch  Presbyterians  now  are. 
The  passage  is  in  his  Brief  Catechism  concerning 
Church  Government,  and  it  is  this ; 


NOTES.  57 

"  *  Q.  37.  AVhat  is  required  touching  the  singing 
of  psahns  in  the  church  ? 

" '  Ans.  That  they  be  such  as  are  parts  of  the 
Word  of  God,  formed  by  the  Holy  Ghost  into 
psalms  or  songs,  which  many  may  conveniently 
sing  together,  exhorting  and  admonishing  them- 
selves mutually  with  grace  in  their  hearts/ 

"  So  Davenp'ort  and  Hooker,  in  the  New  Haven 
Catechism  [reprinted  Xew  Haven,  1853],  says, 
p.  54: 

'- '  Q.  What  is  required  concerning  singing  of 
psalms  in  the  church  ? 

" '  K.  Singing  of  psalms  in  the  church  is  an  ordi- 
nance to  be  performed  not  only  by  the  ministers, 
but  also  by  the  whole  assembly ;  the  psalms  thus 
sung  must  be  such  parts  of  Scripture  as  the  Holy 
Ghost  hath  formed  into  verse  to  be  sunsf ;  exhortinsf 
and  admonishing  themselves,  mutually  with  grace 
in  their  hearts,  making  melody- in  their  hearts  to 
the  Lord.' 

^•'  Nothing  in  the  worship  of  our  modern  Congre-. 
gational  churches  would  so  displease  John  Eobinson 
and  John  Davenport  (if  they  could  come  into  the 
Lord's  Day  assembly  with  their  old  sympathies  and 
antipathies  unchanged),  than  to  find  a  mere  hymn- 
book,  instead  of  the  Bible  Psalms— not  even  Watts' 


58  .  NOTES. 

imitation  of  the  Psalms— and  the  service  of  song 
vicariously  rendered  through  a  hired  quartette,  or 
an  amateur  choir,  perched  up  in  an  organ-loft.  If 
this  modern  singing  of  hymns  by  a  choir  is  com- 
mended as  anti-Episcopal,  the  answer  is  that  much 
more  is  it  anti-Puritan.  Holding  it  up  and  con- 
tending for  it  to  the  exclusion  of  the  Psalms,  in  the 
name  of  Puritanism,  is  ludicrously  absurd." 


NOTE  VI.— PAGE   34. 

The  proposition  being  before  the  Church  to  re- 
place the  Plymouth  Collection  by  the  Songs  of  the 
Sanctuary,  and  at  the  same  time  to  introduce  the 
responsive  reading  of  the  Psalter,  according  to  the 
arrangement  of  lessons  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Storrs,  the 
foregoing  discourse  was  preached  on  Sunday,  Xov. 
10,  1873,  and  on  the  following  Wednesday  the 
change  was  voted  by  a  very  large  majority.  A  new 
and  improved  edition  of  the  latter  book  being  at 
that  time  in  press,  the  new  mode  of  worship  was 
not  introduced  until  the  New  Year.  Some  three 
months  experience  has  now  been  had,  and  the  re- 
sults have  been  eminently  satisfactory.     The  con- 


NOTES.  59 

gregation  have  made  the  responses  with  great 
unanimity  and  heartiness;  the  pastor  has  read 
Avitli  careful  deUberation  and  emphasis,  the  con- 
gregation have  resjionded  in  Hke  manner — there 
hils  been  no  haste  and  jumbHng  as  some  have  ob- 
jected; and  the  whole  effect,  alike  upon  minister 
and  people,  has  been  elevating  and  inspiring.  It 
has  aided  the  devotional  spirit,  and  given  new  zest 
and  interest  to  the  service. 


LETTERS. 


The  substance  of  the  sermon  was  published 
in  the  New  York  Daily  Wit7ies6'j  and  copies 
sent  to  several  distinguished  pastors  and  clergy- 
men, who  were  known  to  have  had  experience 
in  the  use  of  the  Psalter,  or  whose  views  were 
sought  on  the  general  subject.  The  gentlemen 
consulted  have  all  of  them  replied  with  eminent 
courtesy,  and,  as  will  be  seen,  with  singular 
unanimity  of  sentiment. 

Rev.  George  B.  Bacon,  D.  D.,  of  Orange 
Valley,  New  Jersey,  writes  : 

"  I  have  read  with  great  satisfaction  the  sermon 
preached  to  yonr  people  a  few  weeks  ago,  urging 
the  use  of  the  Book  of  Psalms  in  responsive  wor- 
ship, and  I  am  greatly  pleased  to  hear  that  your 
church,  by  a  large  majority,  has  voted  to  accept 
the  recommendation  of  the  sermon,  and  to  use  the 
Psalms,  in  such  responsive  reading,  in  their  public 


LETTERS.  01 

worsliip  hereafter.  It  is  now  more  than  six  years 
since  my  own  church,  almost  without  a  dissenting 
voice,  voted  to  introduce  this  new  practice.  We 
have  had  time  to  make  the  experiment  of  it  tlior- 
oughly.  It  is  impossible  for  me  to  tell  you  hov/ 
much  good  has  already  come  from  it. 

"  The  use  of  the  Psalms  in  parallelisms,  as  they 
were  written,  and  as  their  structure  clearly  shows 
they  were  intended  to  be  used,  is  abundantly 
proved  to  be  a  natural,  simple,  every  way  unobjec- 
tionable form  of  prayer  and  praise.  We  all  feel,  I 
believe,  that  we  never  knew  the  value  of  the  Book 
of  Psalms,  as  by  this  use  of  it  we  have  learned  its 
value.  Last  Sunday,  for  example,  we  read  the  fifty- 
first  Psalm.  It  gave  tone  (as  I  could  see,  and  the 
people  felt)  to  the  whole  service  following.  On 
baptismal  Sundays  we  read  the  103d  Psalm,  and  in 
the  use  of  it  the  people  feel  the  sacred  beauty  of 
the  ordinance  in  which  the  "  righteousness  of  the 
Lord  unto  children's  children"  is  involved  and 
recognized.  At  the  Lord's  Supper  we  read  in  con- 
cert that  'hymn,'  which  they  sung  before  'they 
went  out  into  the  Mount  of  Olives,'  (the  118th 
Psalm.)  And  that  holy  feast  has  a  new  sacredness 
and  beauty  to  me,  and  to  the  whole  church,  as  we 
say  the  words  which  Jesus  said  with  his  disciples, — 


62  LETTERS. 

'  I  sliall  not  die  but  live ; 
Open  to  me  tlie  gates  of  rigliteousness ; 
The  stone  wbicli  the  builders  refused 
Is  become  the  head-stone  of  the  corner; 
Blessed  be  he  that  conieth  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  ; 
Bind  the  sacrifice  with  cOrds,  even  unto  the  horns  of 
the  altar.' 

Nothing  like  the  same  effect  could  be  produced  by 
the  simple  hearing  of  these  words ;  but,  as  we  all 
take  them  on  our  lips  together,  it  is  grand,  and  the 
stimulus  to  devotion  is  of  the  greatest  value ! 

"  We  have  now  used  the  responsive  reading  long 
enough  to  have  become  attached  to  it,  and  would, 
I  am  sure,  be  conscious  of  a  most  serious  loss,  if  we 
were  to  give  it  up.  It  is,  let  me  say,  a  great  im- 
provement, as  to  method,  over  that  in  use  in  the 
Episcopal  churches.  The  reading  of  alternate 
verses  is  often  confused  and  confusing.  The  read- 
ing of  alternate  •  parallelisms  is  natural,  simple, 
rhythmical,  and  every  way  deUghtful.  The  only 
criticism,  which  I  should  make  upon  your  sermon, 
is  that  it  does  not  clearly  enough  point  out  this 
peculiarity  of  structure  in  the  Psalms,  which  fits 
them,  and  even  (I  may  almost  say)  requires  them 
to  be  put  to  just  this  use.  Sometimes,  in  our 
Sunday  Schools,  the  historical,  or  narrative,  or 


LETTERS.  63 

argumentative  portions  of  Scripture  are  read  re- 
sponsively.  This  is  always  harsh  and  awkward,  and 
no  other  good  came  from  it  than  the  fixing  of  the 
attention  on  the  reading.  But  to  use  the  Psalms 
in  this  responsive  style  is  to  use  them  for  worship, 
and  it  will  be  hard  for  any  one  taking  upon  his 
lips  these  prayers  and  praises,  not  to  feel  them  in 
his  heart 

••  I  have  the  smallest  sympathy  with  any  move- 
ment in  the  direction  of  a  man-made  liturgy,  or 
any  merely  ornamental  change  of  our  traditional 
order  of  worship.  But  this  change  is  not  of  that 
sort.  It  is  because  it  makes  our  w^orship  more 
congregational,  that  I  value  it.  It  is  because  it  is 
not  an  innovation,  but  a  return  to  the  primitive 
method,  as  the  Apostles  used  it,  as  Christ  the  Lord 
used  it,  and  as  David  and  the  Jewish  Church, 
while  waiting  for  the  advent  of  David's  greater 
Son,  used  it.  Nothing  would  induce  me  to  give  up 
a  method  in  itself  so  excellent  and  so  inspired,  and 
in  its  associations  so  hallowed  and  so  inspiring. 

"  I  have  spoken  for  myself  chiefly  in  this  note ; 
but  I  believe  I  speak  what  is  the  growing  convic- 
tion of  my  people,  that  this  responsive  use  of  the 
book  of  Psalms  supplies  a  w^ant  in  our  worship,  of 
which  we  were  dimly  conscious  before,  but  which 


64  LETTERS. 

the  supply  of  it  makes  more  and  more  clear  to  us. 
If  your  people  will  use  it,  it  will  not  take  them 
long  to  discover  that  it  is  what  they  have  wanted, 
and  to  wonder  why  they  did  not  come  to  it  before. 
Especially  you  will  find  that  the  children  in  all 
your  families  will  find  a  pleasure  and  a  profit  in  the 
new  method." 


Rev.  E.  P.  Goodwin^  D.  D.,  pastor  of  the  First 
Congregational  Church,  Chicago,  writes  : 

"  I  have  become  greatly  interested  in  this  matter 
of  responsive  readings,  and  specially  so  since  our 
experiment.  We  hit  upon  them  in  a  rather 
unusual  way.  I  had  long  felt  the  lack  of  the 
people's  participation  in  the  Sabbath  service,  both 
as  respects  the  barrenness  of  the  service  itself,  con- 
ducted solely  by  the  pulpit,  and  also  the  listlessness 
and  coldness,  not  to  say  indifference,  characteristic 
of  the  earlier  portions  of  the  worship. 

"  But  how  to  bring  about  any  change  was  a  puzzle. 
Neither  the  people  nor  myself  had  any  sympathy 
with  ritualism — were,  indeed,  alike  by  temperament, 


LETTERS.  65 

faith,  and  education,  strongly  opposed  to  it.  Then 
a  number  of  good  brethren  claimed  to  have  tried 
the  experiment,  and  demonstrated  its  impracti- 
cability among  churches  of  our  order.  The  result 
was  that  I  determined  to  take  the  risks,  and  make 
trial  for  myself.  So,  without  consulting  so  much 
as  a  deacon — without  a  word  of  previous  debate 
in  committee,  or  before  the  church — I  invited  the 
people  to  bring  their  Bibles.  And  on  the  next 
Sabbath,  when  the  time  came  for  the  Scripture 
lesson,  I  merely  suggested  that  it  would  be  pleasant 
possibly  to  read  it  together,  and  invited  all  who 
felt  so  disposed  to  read  alternately  w\.i\\  me.  I 
own  my  heart  thumped  a  little  anxiously,  as  I 
thought  of  the  possibility  of  having  to  do  all  the 
reading  myself;  but  the  goodly  array  of  Bibles 
assured  me,  and,  when  after  my  verse,  a  full  half  or 
more  of  the  congregation  broke  out  in  clear,  full 
response,  you  can  imagine  my  surprise  and  delight. 
We  started  with  the  23d  Psalm,  and  before  we  were 
half  through  no  prophet  was  needed  to  predict  the 
issue.  By  those  indubitable  tokens,  which  tell 
when  peoj^le's  hearts  flow  together,  it  was  manifest 
that  we  were  to  have  no  debate  in  the  matter. 
And  thus,  without  a  word  of  argument  or  exhorta- 
tion, the  whole  question  settled  itself     The  trial 


66  LETTERS. 

reading  was  so  good  that  everybody  wanted  more  j 
and  so  we  have  kept  on  reading,  and  with  increas- 
ing satisfaction  and  profit. 

"  The  results  are  obvious.  The  whole  congrega- 
tion has  come  to  feel  a  personal  interest  in  the 
service,  and  looks  forward  to  it  with  desire.  What- 
ever restlessness  used  to  show  itself  in  the  earlier 
portions  of  the  worship  has  been  dissipated.  Spiri- 
tual desires  and  feelings  have  been  evidently  quick- 
ened, and  the  Lord's  house  made  to  have  a  warmer 
atmosphere.  I  think  I  do  not  mistake  in  saying 
that  the  unison  of  voices  all  through  the  sanctuary, 
now  in  praise,  noAV  in  prayer,  now  in  the  words  of 
David,  now  of  Jesus  (coupled  with  our  Introduc- 
tory Service,  in  which  all  sing  the  Doxology,  and 
then  at  the  close  of  the  Invocation  unite  in  the 
Lord's  Prayer),  very  greatly  deepens  the  flow  of 
feeling,  and  starts  the  worship  of  the  day — if  I  may 
so  say — at  a  higher  tide  than  we  are  wont  to  know. 
While,  as  for  myself,  no  feature  of  our  worship 
more  sensibly  stimulates  and  inspires  me,  and  puts 
me  in  trim  for  preaching. 

*'  I  am  quite  sure  I  do  not  overstate  my  conviction 
of  the  feasibility  of  introducing  responsive  readings 
among  our  pilgrim  folk,  and  of  their  being  made  a 
most  enjoyable  and  spiritually  fruitful  part  of  the 


LETTERS.  67 

service.  My  experience  fully  accords  with  yours, 
and  I  do  not  believe  my  people  could  be  persuaded 
to  relinquish  the  readings,  and  return  to  the  old 
barren,  ?/7i-congregational  way  of  worship." 


Rev.  N.  J.  Burton,  D.  D.,  pastor  of  the  Park 
Congregational  Church,  Hartford,  Ct.,  wTites  : 

"  The  people  of  my  congregation  have  partici- 
pated in  the  reading  of  the  Psalms  in  our  public 
services  for  several  years  now ;  and  the  practice 
has  fully  justified  itself.  I  hear  of  no  opposition  to 
it ;  all  take  hold  ;  and  I  think  that  a  proposition  to 
return  to  the  old  way  of  silence  would  overwhelm- 
ingly fail. 

"  As  to  your  sermon  Avhich  you  sent  me,  I  do  not 
know  that  I  have  any  suggestion  to  make,  unless  I 
say  that  when  you  speak  of  the  philosophy  of  re- 
sponsive worship,  you  make  a  good  argument  for  a 
participation  by  the  people,  even  beyond  respon- 
sive reading.  I  do  not  mention  this,  however,  in 
the  way  of  criticism,  for  I  believe  the  people  might, 
to  advantage,  be  brought  in  at  several  other  points 


6S  LETTERS. 

in  the  service,  as  they  are  in  fact  in  some  of  our 
churches,  though  in  mine  they  do  nothing  more 
than  read  the  Psalter,  and  recite  the  Lord's  Prayer 
at  the  close  of  the  main  prayer  in  the  morning.*' 


Kev.  0.  E.  Daggett,  D.D.,  of  New  London, 
Conn.,  says  : 

"  I  have  read  your  sermon  on  responsive  reading, 
with  entire  satisfaction,  both  as  to  the  argument 
and  the  style.  No  suggestions  occur  to  me  toward 
addition,  omission,  or  change,  as  I  do  not  see  how 
it  could  be  amended  for  the  purposes  you  have  in 
view. — Of  course  I  approve  of  responsive  reading  of 
the  Psalms,  and  other  devotional  Scriptures;  and 
my  chief  drawback  in  the  movement  is  the  slug- 
gishness in  so  many  congregations  in  executing  it 
when  adopted.  It  seems  to  me,  also,  that  some 
other  things  are  hardly  less,  or  not  less  desirable, 
such  as  the  'Apostles'  Creed,'  'Lord's  Prayer,' 
'Confession,'  and  'Thanksgiving,'  and  an  inter- 
val of  'Silent  Worship,'  and  some  minor  'articu- 
lations,' as  I  call  them,  anatomically,  of  the  ser- 
vices.   I  would  say  also,  daily  worship,  and  more 


LETTERS.  C9 

frequent  communion.  Then,  time  brings  me  to 
see,  more  than  formerly,  the  sort  of  paralysis,  or,  at 
best,  dryness  in  the  Church,  and  even  more  in  too 
many  of  the  ministry,  not  in  the  brain-work  of 
speculation,  but  in  the  heart-work  of  worship.  If 
there  were  only  the  waiting  readiness  for  the  true 
afflatus!"  * 


Rev.  Horace  Bushnell,  D.D.,  writes  : 

"  You  make,  on  the  whole,  in  your  sermon — this 
is  what  I  would  say — a  very  cumulative  and  im- 
pressive argument.  And  I  heartily  agree  with  you 
in  it.  If  we  go  back  a  little  on  the  Puritans,  I 
would  do  it  with  some  delicacy,  as  Shem  and 
Japhet  did  in  the  covering  of  their  father ;  for,  if 
the  strong  wine  of  Reformation  had  stripped  them 
over-much,  they  are  still  to  be  honored  as  the 
new-time  fathers  of  a  better  future,  and  re-popu- 
lated world.  There  is  certainly  a  sad  want  of 
consent  and  co-activity  in  our  worship.  Being  for 
all,  all  should  have  a  share  in  it,  and  a  communion 
of  voices  in  it,  on  the  way  to  a  communion  of 
saints.   There  are  things  in  the  Psalms  that  belong 


70  LETTERS. 

to  their  age,  and  not  to  ours ;  the  grand  thing  is, 
that  they  are  so  largely  for  ours,  and  fit  to  be  the 
type  of  our  more  Christ-ed  and  matured  worship. 
At  the  same  time,  a  good  deal  more  care  needs  to 
he  gi^en,  than  there  sometimes  has  been,  to  the 
distribution  of  the  lines  for  recital." 


Rev.  T.  D.  Woolsey,  D.D.,  etc.,  late  President 
of  Yale  College,  writes  a  most  interesting  and  in- 
structive letter,  from  which  I  am  permitted  to 
make  the  following  quotation  : 

"Any  changes  in  the  present  received  congrega- 
tional worship,  in  order  to  be  permanent  and  use- 
ful, should  meet  a  demand,  and  conform  to  a 
change  of  feeling  in  society,  which,  while  it  does 
not  oppose,  but  rather  furthers  the  religious  emo- 
tions, is  likely  to  be  lasting,  and  not  to  give  place 
to  the  contrary  tendency. 

What  now  is  the  state  of  the  denomination,  and 
what  can  be  done  to  aid  it  in  a  religious  way  ?  The 
leading  faults,  or  defects  of  Congregationalism  are, 
as  it  seems  to  me, — 1.  A  want  of  a  common  spirit. 


■     LETTERS.  71 

There  is  no  special  attachment  to  the  church 
poHty,  and  no  other  uniting  bond.  2.  An  irrelig- 
ious departure,  in  some  respects,  from  the  con- 
dition of  better  times.  I  refer  to  easier  lapse  into 
false  doctrine,  ignorance,  or  want  of  interest  in  the 
truth,  making  preaching  of  too  much  relative  im- 
portance to  worship,  a  neglect  of  the  religious 
sentiments,  an  ungodly  way  of  getting  through 
with  the  singing,  etc.  I  am  writing  to-day,  Sun- 
day evening,  after  being  present  at  a  church, 
where  they  have  never  succeeded  in  having  religious 
church-music,  and  I  said  to  myself.  Will  not  reli- 
gion in  the  heart,  if  there  is  enough  of  it,  reform 
such  abuses?  3.  The  sentiment  of  reverence  for 
the  day,  occasion,  place,  and  for  a  present  God,  is 
one  of  the  nobler  human  feelings,  which  the  free- 
dom of  the  Grospel  does  not  interfere  with,  and 
which  does  not  interfere  with  freedom.  And  yet 
this  sentiment  is  little  visible  in  this  country,  and 
especially,  as  it  seems  to  me,  in  our  churches.  It 
must  be  confessed  that  our  precise,  formulated, 
logical  doctrine  cultivates  the  intellect  chiefly,  and 
thus  the  sentiments  are  chilled,  and  half  dead. 
But  now,  doctrine  is  little  cared  for ;  and  there  are 
few  laymen,  I  apprehend,  who  have  much  distinct 
faith,  or  much  inward  knowledge  of  the  Bible. 


72  LETTERS. 

Worldly  prosperity,  with  its  immoralities,  is  de- 
stroying faith,  more  than  science  and  history. 
Hence  we  must  look  for  greater  infidelity  in  the 
future,  more  avowed  foes  of  religion,  unless  God  in 
his  own  way  disappoints  our  fears. 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  your  desire  of  a  change  in 
the  services  is  a  confession  of  a  want.  Others 
make  the  same  confession.  We  cannot  shut  our 
eyes  to  the  going  off  from  us  of  many  to  the  Epis- 
copal Church,  nor  to  the  want  of  really  religious 
worship,  nor  to  possible  dangers  in  the  future. 

"  Now,  as  to  what  you  especially  wish,  I  should 
have  no  objections  in  general.  I  could  concur  in 
it  with  pleasure.  And  yet  I  should  not  anticipate 
so  much  effect  from  it  as  you  seem  to  do.  Shall  I 
say  also  that  I  should  rather  have  selections  from 
the  Psalms,  leaving  out  the  imprecatory  ones,  or 
denunciatory,  as  some  would  call  them,  and  adding 
to  the  rest  some  of  the  most  edifying  passages  of 
Scripture  fitted  for  responses. 

"  It  would  be  grateful,  very  gi'ateful  to  me,  to  have 
some  of  the  best  small  chants  regularly  introduced 
into  our  worship,  such  as  *  The  Lord  is  in  his 
holy  temple.  Let  all  the  earth  keep  silence  before 
him;'  I  never  hear  this,  and  *I  was  glad  when 
they  said  unto  me,'  and  some  others,  without  the 


LETTERS.  73 

profoundest  feelings  being  excited,  so  that  I  would 
go  no  small  distance  to  have  them  renewed.  I 
should  be  glad  also  to  have  written  prayers  for  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  Congress,  special 
meetings,  as  the  American  Board,  times  of  general 
illness,  etc.,  a  small  collect  for  occasions,  the  wants 
of  which  can  be  expressed  in  a  definite  form  of 
words.  Above  all,  I  should  desire  to  have  our 
present  choir  system  greatly  altered.  You  are 
aware  that  the  Geneva  gown  kept  its  ground  for  a 
long  time  in  this  country.  I  should  be  willing  to 
have  it  brought  back  again. — I  would  only  repeat 
that  the  practice  of  responsive  reading  would,  in 
my  eyes,  be  of  less  practical  value  than  some  other 
changes,  such  as  appeal  to  religious  feeling,  and  to 
reverence  more  particularly;  yet  I  should  accept 
it." 


I  take  great  satisfaction  in  adding  to  these 
valuable  testimonies,  the  foUowins:  interesting 
letter  from  the  honored  pastor  of  the  Church  of 
the  Pilgrims,  Rev.  R.  S.  Storrs,  Jr.,  D.D.,  at  whose 
side  it  has  been  my  happiness  to  labor  in  the  Chris- 
tian ministry  for  a  period  of  eighteen  years  : 


74  LETTERS. 

"  The  same  change  in  the  order  of  Sunday  wor- 
ship which  has  recently  been  made  in  the  Chnton 
Ayenue  Church,  and  to  which  your  sermon  so 
effectively  contributed,  was  made  in  the  Church  of 
the  Pilgrims,  as  you  are  aware,  eight  years  ago,  in 
1865.  The  proposal  for  this  change  was  not  intro- 
duced by  me,  though,  after  it  had  been  made,  it 
had  my  constant  and  energetic  support.  I  wel- 
comed it  warmly,  and  supported  it  strenuously, 
because  it  had  long  seemed  to  me  a  strange  turning 
of  things  upside  down,  that  churches  whose 
government  is  aristocratic  should  find  their 
strength  in  the  fact  that  their  worship  is  social 
and  popular,  while  our  churches,  with  a  democratic 
government,  find  their  weakness  in  the  fact  that 
their  worship  is  so  generally  ministerial  and  ex- 
clusive. I  knew  that  this  curious  reversing  of  the 
natural  order  of  things  must  come  to  an  end  sooner 
or  later,  and  I  thought  the  sooner  it  was  terminated 
with  us  the  better.  So  I  earnestly  advocated  the 
change.  I  was  more  desirous  of  it  because  of  my 
thorough  dislike  and  dread  of  the  tendency  which 
seemed  rapidly  advancing  among  us,  as  in  many 
congregations  of  culture  and  wealth,  to  make  the 
worship  more  attractive  by  making  it  increasingly 
elaborate  and  ornamental  in  the  musical  parts.     It 


LETTERS.  75 

seemed  to  me  then,  as  it  does  now,  that  there  lay 
in  this  tendency  a  subtle  and  great  danger ;  that  it 
must  in  the  end,  if  not  arrested,  demoraUze  both 
the  choir  and  the  people — transforming  the  entire 
'  worship,'  so  called,  into  a  simple  Sunday  concert, 
with  sermon  and  prayers  to  furnish  the  scanty 
religious  trimmings;  an  aiTangement  of  things 
under  which  no  minister  could  work  for  the  Master, 
with  hopeful  earnestness  and  a  true  consecration. 
At  the  same  time  I  felt  that  this  increasing  onia- 
mentation  of  worship  revealed  a  conscious  want  on 
the  part  of  congregations,  and  a  dissatisfaction 
with  existing  arrangements,  which  would  be  more 
fully  as  well  as  more  properly  met  by  making  the 
worship  not  more  artistic  but  more  popular  and 
social.  I  was,  therefore,  gladly  ready  to  take  my 
full  part  in  ad\dsing  and  urging  the  proposed 
change. 

"  The  objections  which  were  made  to  it,  and 
which  were  earnestly  urged  by  some  excellent  and 
valued  members  of  the  church,  were  such  as  would 
naturally  be  expected  to  suggest  themselves,  in  the 
absence  of  any  experience  on  the  subject,  and  such 
as  I  infer  from  your  sermon  that  you  have  yourself 
more  lately  encountered.  The  objection  was  at 
first  prominent  that  it  involved  a  departure  from 


7G  LETTERS. 

the  customs  of  the  Pilgrims.  But  this  was  soon 
so  thoroughly  answered,  by  the  demonstration  of 
the  inherent  right  of  each  local  church  to  decide 
for  itself  in  matters  of  this  sort,  and  by  a  sketch 
of  the  many  particulars  in  which  the  early  customs 
of  New  England  had  already  been  departed  from 
in  our  congregations — in  regard,  for  example,  to 
the  reading  of  the  Scriptures  in  church,  the  prayer 
of  Invocation,  the  singing  of  hymns,  the  use  of  the 
organ,  of  local  confessions  of  faith,  postures  in  wor- 
ship, the  sitting  together  of  families,  marriage, 
funeral  services,  Sunday  schools,  prayer  meetings, 
etc.,  etc. — that  that  objection  disappeared  pretty 
early,  and  hardly  lifted  its  head  toward  the  end  of 
the  discussion.  Our  venerable  friend.  Dr.  Leavitt, 
lately  gone  to  his  rest,  made  one  of  the  most  com- 
plete and  crushing  replies  that  I  ever  heard  to  this 
objection. 

"Another  objection,  which  kept  its  ground  more 
tenaciously,  was  that  in  such  a  change  we  should 
be  approximating  more  or  less  the  Episcopal  forms, 
and  educating  our  worshippers,  at  least  the  younger 
part  of  them,  for  the  Episcopal  service. 

"  In  regard  to  this  point,  I  remember  to  have  been 
impressed  with  the  vigorous  wisdom  of  an  honored 
member  and  officer  of  the  church,  who  said,  in 


LETTERS.  77 

substance,  in  reply  to  it :  'I  wish  it  did  make  our 
forms  more  like  those  of  the  Episcopalians  than  it 
does :  for,  so  long  as  the  discussion  between  them 
and  us  is  principally  limited  to  our  respective  forms 
of  worship,  I  think  we  give  to  them  the  advantage. 
If  that  discussion  were  out  of  the  way,  and  the  only 
questions  left  in  debate  were  of  their  government  or 
ours,  their  doctrine  or  ours,  we  should  regain  our 
proper  advantage — with  the  Word  and  the  Spirit  of 
God  on  our  side,  and  the  national  tendencies  strongly 
with  us.'  The  church  at  large,  I  think,  agreed  with 
him,  as  certainly  I  did.  At  any  rate,  a  great  major- 
ity of  the  brethren  felt  that  persons  were  far  more 
likely  to  be  carried  into  the  Episcopal  communion  by 
a  reaction  from  the  meagreness  and  baldness  of  our 
customary  services,  than  to  be  educated  into  it  by 
a  larger  infusion  of  the  social  element  into  our 
forms  of  worship ;  and  that,  since  the  Lord's  Prayer 
and  the  Psalms  neither  teach  prelatical  govern- 
ment nor  sacramental  grace,  there  was  no  great 
risk  of  our  being  led  into  error  in  those  directions 
by  making  use  of  them  in  our  service.  Indeed,  be- 
fore the  discussion  was  over,  a  conviction  which  for 
years  had  been  growing  upon  me,  had  lodged  itself 
in  other  minds :  that  our  former  customs  had  really 
involved  the  essential  principle  of  practical  Roman- 


78  LETTERS, 

ism — a  vicarious  service,  performed  for  the  people 
by  minister  and  clioir,  of  which  the  people  were 
spectators  and  auditors,  but  in  which  they  took  no 
personal  part;  and  that  the  change  now  proposed 
was  of  great  importance  as  favoring  a  tendency 
exactly  the  opposite  of  that  which  some  had  con- 
ceived to  lie  in  it.  It  was,  in  fact,  a  repetition  of 
the  change  which  the  Eeformed  Church  at  Geneva 
had  made  three  hundred  years  ago;  when,  under 
Calvin,  it  restored  the  use  of  the  Psalter  to  the 
people,  and  set  the  example  which  the  English 
Church  followed.  It  was  a  change  especially  im- 
portant to  us,  if  we  would  develope  as  we  ought  in 
our  churches  the  Xew  Testament  idea  of  the  com- 
mon priesthood  of  believers,  and  of  their  equality 
and  brotherhood  before  Christ. 

'•After  prolonged  and  earnest  discussion,  in  which 
these  points  and  others  were  fully  considered,  the 
repeating  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  by  the  whole  con- 
gregation, and  the  responsive  reading  of  the  Psalms, 
according  to  the  order  which  you  have  now  adopted, 
were  decided  upon  among  us  by  a  large  majority : 
and  those  who  had  been  most  earnestly  opposed  to 
the  untried  experiment,  with  very  few  exceptions, 
instantly  and  honorably  acquiesced  in  the  change, 
and  did  their  part  to  make  it  successful.     During 


LETTERS.  79 

the  eight  years  that  have  followed,  I  have 
hardly  heard  a  criticism  upon  the  order  of  wor- 
ship which  was  thus  introduced.  Some  of  those 
who  at  first  were  most  averse  to  it,  now  freely 
admit  that  it  secures  a  pleasant  variety  in  the 
services ;  that  it  interests  and  attracts  the  young, 
the  less  educated,  and  those  who  have  had  no 
musical  training;  that  it  makes  the  Biblical  ele- 
ment more  prominent  in  worship,  and  thus  quick- 
ens and  educates  devout  feeling  in  experienced 
Christians ;  and  that,  in  practice,  it  tends  to  empha- 
size both  the  obhgation  of  individuals  and  the  unity 
of  the  church  in  the  common  and  public  worship 
of  God. 

*•'  Meantime,  difficulties  that  were  seriously  appre- 
hended by  some  have  wholly  vanished  from  every 
mind. 

"  It  was  thought,  at  the  outset,  that  other  minis- 
ters occupying  the  pulpit  might  find  themselves 
embarrassed  by  the  unfamiHar  order  of  worship; 
but  no  one  has  ever  done  so,  to  my  knowledge,  ex- 
cept one  eminent  and  excellent  brother,  the  savor 
of  whose  good  name  is  in  all  the  churches,  who 
found  himself  unwilling  to  read,  and  proved  on 
trial  unable  to  repeat,  the  Lord's  Prayer.  I  have  no 
doubt  that  the  momentary  embarrassment  was  to 


80  LETTERS. 

him  so  far  a  means  of  grace  that  he  could  say  the 
prayer  now  with  entire  success.  During  the  year 
and  a- half  in  which  I  was  absent  from  my  pulpit, 
in  Europe,  the  services  went  on  with  constant  reg- 
ularity, with  no  slightest  jar,  under  the  lead  of  I 
know  not  how  many  different  ministers ;  and  these 
very  often  took  pains  to  express  their  personal  satis- 
faction and  enjoyment  in  them. 

"  It  was  apprehended  beforehand,  by  some,  that 
the  changes  introduced  would  tend  to  render  the 
services  'formal,'  and  that  revivals  would  thence- 
forth cease  among  us.  But  the  most  blessed  and 
fruitful  of  all  our  seasons  of  general  awakening  to 
the  truths  of  the  G-ospel  came  the  very  next  year. 

"  Some  feared  that  members  of  other  churches, 
coming  to  Brooklyn,  might  be  deterred  from 
uniting  with  us  by  the  difference  of  our  forms 
from  those  to  which  they  had  been  accustomed. 
But  they  came  afterward  more  rapidly  than  before ; 
while  with  them  came  others  from  the  Baptist, 
Methodist,  Episcopal,  Dutch,  and  Presbyterian 
churches,  attracted  by  the  services  in  which  they 
and  their  children  could  take  equal  part,  which 
were  serious  without  stiffness,  and  various  without 
being  complicated  or  long.    To  such  an  extent  did 


LETTERS.  81 

this  go  that  we  were  obHged,  as  you  know,  to  en- 
large our  church  edifice,  four  years  ago,  with  much 
trouble,  at  large  expense,  to  find  room  for  the  fam- 
ilies desiring  to  join  us. 

"  One  after  another,  all  the  objections  which  at 
first  were  urged  against  the  change,  and  which 
were  wholly  legitimate  and  natural  in  the  absence 
of  any  experience  of  it,  have  been  thoroughly  an- 
swered by  that  experience;  and  I  do  not  believe 
that  to-day  the  most  inconsiderable  minority  of  the 
church  would  desire  a  return  to  the  customs  of 
w^orship  which  obtained  among  us  before  this 
change  was  introduced.  Certainly,  as  to  the 
church  at  large,  it  has  been  consciously  compacted, 
as  well  as  steadily  increased,  by  the  change ;  its 
members  are  more  reluctant  to  leave,  and  more 
eager  to  return  to  it ;  and  it  is  no  more  likely  to 
give  up  in  future  the  responsive  reading  of  the 
Bible  in  its  services  than  it  is  to  throw  aside  its 
creed,  and  join  itself  to  the  Campbellite  Baptists. 
It  enjoys  the  result  to  which  it  came,  after  discus- 
sion, in  the  wise  exercise  of  its  Christian  liberty. 
And  no  man  henceforth  will  ever  rob  it  of  what 
has  approved  itself,  year  after  year,  a  privilege  and 
a  help. 


82  LETTERS. 

"My  note  is  growing  to  an  intolerable  length, 
but  I  cannot  close  it  without  saying  that  the  very 
discussion  through  which  we  passed,  in  order  to  the 
harmonious  introduction  of  this  change,  was,  in  it- 
self, and  its  direct  influence,  as  blessed  a  thing  as 
has  ever  occurred  in  the  experience  of  the  church. 
It  was  animated,  earnest,  evoking  at  times  a  good 
deal  of  feeling  on  either  side;  but  it  was  in  the 
main  eminently  intelligent  and  Christian,  and  so  it 
enlightened  the  minds,  and  quickened  the  hearts 
of  the  members  of  the  church  in  proportion  to  its 
earnestness.  I  have  always  felt  that,  aside  alto- 
gether from  the  happy  issue  to  which  it  brought 
us,  the  discussion  itself  was  of  radical  and  enduring 
benefit. 

"  I  congratulate  you  and  your  church,  my  dear 
brother,  most  heartily,  on  the  similar  discussion 
through  which  you  have  passed,  and  the  similar 
results  to  which  it  has  brought  you.  And  I  pray 
God  that  your  example,  and  the  excellent  teach- 
ings of  your  discourse,  may  contribute  powerfully 
to  lead  other  churches  of  our  order  and  faith, 
throughout  the  land,  to  use  their  liberty  in  the 
same  direction;  and,  by  making  the  public  wor- 
ship of  God  more  social  and  more  Biblical,  to  make 


LETTERS.  83 

it  also  more  serious,  more  attractive,  more  richly 
instructive,  and  more  vitally  inspiring.  It  is  one 
of  my  deepest  i)ractical  convictions,  that  no  body 
of  churches  can  do  the  best  and  widest  work  for 
God's  kingdom  in  this  country,  in  which  the  peo- 
ple are  not  allowed  and  taught  to  take  personal 
and  large  part  in  the  services  of  God's  house;  in 
which  worship  by  all — *  young  men  and  maidens, 
old  men  and  children' — is  not  systematically 
prompted  and  encouraged;  and  in  which  the 
spirit  of  adoration  and  consecration,  re-enforced  in 
the  heart  by  being  uttered  on  the  lips,  is  not 
helped  and  developed  by  every  service,  on  every 
Sunday.  Ministers  and  choirs  joerfonning  their 
parts  before  passive  assemblies — no  matter  how 
learned  and  eloquent  the  one,  or  how  artistic 
and  delightful  the  other  —  will  no  more  hold, 
mould,  and  quicken  the  American  people,  than 
military  bands  will  decide  a  campaign,  or  corus- 
cating rockets  set  the  planet  on  fire.  The  whole 
congregation  must  praise  and  pray,  and  read  the 
Word,  with  conscious  spirit  and  articulate  voice, 
that  it  may  be  filled  with  the  power  and  passion  of 
Divine  love,  and  the  majestic  and  tender  temper 
of  holy  obedience. 


84  LETTERS. 

"Thanking  God  that  after  so  many  years  of 
intimate  fellowship  and  common  labor,  we  still 
are  standing  side  by  side,  and  praying  for  His 
constant  and  abundant  blessing  on  you,  and  on 
your  church  —  than  which  my  own  is  hardly 
dearer — I  am  as  ever,  my  dear  brother, 

"  Truly  and  affectionately  yours, 

**R.S.  STORES,  Jr." 


Date  Due 

M  21  ':!8 

^ 

